


Star Touched

by Tundra0Dragon



Category: Pikmin (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, Gen, Major Character Undeath, Major Original Character(s), Minor Character Death, Multiple Pov, OK TIME FOR FUN TAGS, Olimar is everyones dad, Star Touched AU, Strong Language, Trauma, abuse mention, but most who die still stay dead, more tags may be added, pik leader, pikmin hybrid, romance B plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27697838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tundra0Dragon/pseuds/Tundra0Dragon
Summary: PNF-404 is a beautiful planet, but beautiful things in nature are often deadly and this strange planet with its monstrous wildlife is no exception. This doesn't stop them from returning when the pikmin are threatened by an unnatural force.However, trying to save these creatures so dear to them may have been more than what they were prepared for.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28





	1. The Colony

**Author's Note:**

> This story is one I’ve worked on for a long time, and it’s the first where I worked heavily with a beta to make it as good as it can be! Please be sure to check out my beta reader, princce7 here on Ao3! 
> 
> IMPORTANT NOTE: there are some things in this story that are messed up, but I wasn’t sure how to tag without spoiling them. Chapters that deal with some of the heavier themes will have the ability for you to scroll to the end for a detailed but spoiler ridden explanation of the triggering content. I hope this helps everyone!
> 
> (As for the romance B-plot, it's far from a major focus hence my not tagging the ship. I don't want to put this under the ship tag when we're going stretches of time without mentioning it. That being said, if you guys want to have it tagged anyways just let me know and I'll add the tag!)

Olimar paced around the room, nervous. His arms were crossed and pressed closely against his body, and his long ears kept twitching. The fact he was able to have Koppai's three heroes agree to meet with him – let alone being able to contact them in the first place – was a  miracle and a half. Well, the contacting more so than the agreeing – once they heard “the pikmin are in danger” they wasted no time promising to be there. It was arguably even harder to convince his boss to let him take time off to do this. Louie had to talk to the man for him. Olimar didn’t know what Louie said to change the old company president's mind. 

He didn’t really  _ want  _ to know either.

Thankfully his family was much more understanding. They knew what the pikmin meant to him. They were even scared themselves. 

“Olimar. You don’t need to be so nervous.” Louie spoke up. “They’ll listen to you.” 

Olimar turned to his much younger co-worker, who was well over twenty years younger than he . “I… I know they’ll listen. That’s not what has me worried.” 

“The pikmin will be okay.” A second, more feminine voice spoke. “We’re launching you guys up no later than tomorrow, I promise.” 

Olimar turned to the koppaite woman who made this whole mission possible – an older woman by the name Ella.  “I just… I just hope you’re right…” 

Before Ella could respond, the office door opened and Koppai’s three hero e s came  filing in. They were quiet, worry clouding their faces. All Olimar got was a nod from Charlie. Louie got a scrunched face from Brittany. 

“Thank you all for coming here so quickly.” Ella began. Olimar took it as his  queue to go ahead and sit down next to Louie. “As Olimar here has informed you,  the pikmin may be in danger. A while ago a colony was spotted on PNF-404.” 

“B-But it’s a protected planet! No one is supposed-“  Alph began before stopping and looking away, as if just realizing he had interrupted the woman.

“ Indeed… after all that work you three put into making sure it stayed a wild planet… I can understand your frustration. That being said, this colony appears to be inactive.  The mission is simple; explore the remains and see if you can find any evidence to what planet has broken the law. ” 

As the three heroes looked at one another, Olimar added on “And hopefully protect the pikmin and their ecosystem from them as well. ” 

Charlie took a deep breath, looking down at his hands.  “It… will be hard for us to return there, after all that’s happened. I’m sure of it.” Brittany looked away a little, and Alph began to rub his right arm. “But we owe the pikmin so much.  We would have never gotten home – never  _ had  _ a home to return to – if not for them. Of course we’re going to go.” 

Olimar smiled weakly. “I understand… Thank you. ” 

“No need  to thank us. This is for the pikmin.” 

“For the pikmin!” Alph repeated, then he sunk back into his chair a little as if he had spoken out of turn. 

_ Poor kid… he’s anxious all of the time…  _ “For the pikmin.” Olimar echoed back.  Alph smiled a little from hearing that. So did Charlie,  Olimar realized, which made him raise a brow. 

After a short moment of silence, Ella began to speak again. “Well, with all of that settled… you’ll have the rest of today to prepare. We’ll be launching you guys into space tomorrow, in the S.S. Drake of course. We’ll have the coordinates of the exact location you’ll be landing programmed into the computer for you.” 

Alph nodded. “Thank you. ” 

Ella nodded. “Of course. This meeting is now dismissed.” 

* * *

There wasn’t really much to prepare for, in all honesty.  As they were all space explorers, they had done this song and dance time and time again.  They were able to leave Koppai without a hitch .  It took them only a day to leave the solar system – a fairly uneventful day filled with small talk, mind you.  Once they were a safe distance from all other planets, Alph  initiated the cosmic drive.  The Drake raced at a speed  incomprehensible to Olimar – he never had to go this fast to deliver products.  As Alph secured the cosmic drive key in place,  Olimar noticed so mething. 

“Did… did you  _ tie _ the cosmic drive key to the Drake?” 

“It’s- It’s a little more complicated than that.” Alph insisted, seemingly getting flustered. “I welded some cable down to the Drake.” He pointed at a spot on the floor, where a long, thick, black cable attached to some kind of loop was. It looked as if it had always been there, but Olimar knew for a fact it wasn’t there last time he was on the Drake. “And then welded that same cable to the cosmic drive key.” He then pointed to the key itself. The fact something had been added onto it was more obvious due to its shape, but it didn’t look bad or unprofessional either. 

“Hm. Good job kid. ” Olimar decided not to address the obvious – they both knew  _ why  _ the cable was added. No need to make Alph uncomfortable by bringing it up. 

“Of course it’s a good job!” A deep voice rang. Olimar jumped a little from shock before turning towards Charlie.  When did he get in here? 

The captain walked over and put a hand on Alph’s shoulder.  “It was my engineer  who did it. And I only have the best in my crew!”  Alph looked away a little, his cheeks burning an even brighter red. 

Olimar couldn’t tell if Charlie was trying to make Alph feel proud, or if Charlie himself really was proud to have the kid on his team. Probably both, he decided. 

“Well, I came in here to tell you it’s dinner time. So go ahead on to the kitchen, alright?” 

Olimar nodded, and let Charlie lead him into the Drake's kitchen area. Brittany already had the meals all laid out – some instant Hocotate noodles for him and Louie, and some kind of Koppaite dish Olimar didn’t know the name of for the rest of them. They all talked and bantered as they ate, conversation and laughter filling the room. Mostly Charlie’s laughter – the man had a deep and loud voice. 

Alph lifted his glass to take a drink, but before it could reach his mouth his arm froze up and he dropped the glass. It shattered, sending glass and fruit juice everywhere. His right arm just stayed there, stuck out and shaking. 

Everyone else moved quickly. Olimar and Brittany worked on cleaning up the glass. Louie wiped up some juice off of the table. Charlie led Alph away  from the commotion, who still seemed to be frozen in fear. 

Once they were all done cleaning up, Olimar looked up at Alph. It seemed he had  finally regained  feeling in his arm, and now had it pressed firmly against his body. “Are you okay Alph?” he asked. 

“I… I… I need to go.”  He wiggled out of Charlie's arms and made his way for the door. 

“Alph, wait, your food!”  Charlie tried t o stop him, but the engineer was already well on his way. Charlie frowned, grabbed Alph's plate of food, and left with only a “I need to make sure he eats…” before leaving. 

Olimar looked over at the other two, ears leaned back from worry. 

“Go ahead and finish your meals.” Brittany spoke after a moment. “And stick around to help me clean up, please.” 

They did as told, now staying quiet as they ate and cleaned up. Louie washed some dishes, and Olimar put Charlie’s meal away. Not really knowing what else to do, Olimar decided to just slip into his bedroom and call it an early night. It'd be six more days before they arrived at PNF-404, so he might as well just try and get as much rest as he can before then. 

He walked pass Alph's room on the way to his own, faintly hearing Charlie trying to comfort Alph.  _ Poor kid… after what happened to him, he’s still willing to go back there?  _ PNF-404 had hurt everyone on board greatly, but Alph was the only one left with physical scars from the planet. Olimar sighed and walked away, and into his own bedroom. There was no need to pry, and he trusted that Charlie would be able to calm Alph down. He turned his light out, curled up, and tried to fall asleep. 

* * *

Olimar held his breath for a second as PNF-404 came into view through the Drake's large window. The planet was as beautiful as ever; he could see the wide blue oceans, the green land, parched desserts, and frozen poles all from here. The particular angle they were coming at the planet from also revealed a large mountain range that tore across the plains. 

“The coordinates say the colony was… here-ish.” Alph spoke up, pointing to a spot in the plains that was east from the  mountains. 

“Alright then. Let’s prepare to land.” Charlie ordered. 

Alph nodded, clearly shaking a little. Olimar frowned – he only ever had one good landing on this planet. The koppaits had crashed the one and only time they came here.  He didn’t know what it was about the damn place that caused ships to crash into it so  regularly. But they had to be careful. 

“I-In… initiating landing sequence!” Alph managed out, taking control of the Drake to glide smoothly in. Charlie walked over and laid a hand on Alph’s shoulder. Olimar and Brittany looked on, just barely breathing from the fear. Louie was nowhere to be seen; probably curled up in a corner away from the stress. 

The Drake shook a little as they passed into the atmosphere.  The crew looked on, wondering if maybe they did it…

And then all the lights went off in the Drake. 

Alph’s eyes widened  as he struggled with the controls – no matter what he did or how he turned them, the Drake didn’t respond.  The ship’s emergency lights came on, a pale white at first before switching to a harsh red. 

The ship was falling, faster and faster  as the planet's gravity sucked it in. 

Everything happened so quickly. Alph had started to cry from the stress, and Charlie held onto him. Brittany grabbed onto Olimar for support as the ship tumbled. Louie screamed.  An emergency hatch forced itself open,  and the crew members were sucked out into space. 

Olimar could barely  move as he fell – Brittany had a death grip on him, and she wasn’t willing to cooperate. He couldn’t blame her.  He was able to turn his head. Left of him was Charlie, who was also clinging onto Alph.  Further from them was Louie, free falling alone.  Olimar panicked,  his heart racing as he tried to figure out just what he could do. And then he blacked out. 


	2. Awakening

Charlie groaned as he woke up. His entire body hurt. _God dammit… how did I even_ survive _that fall?!_ Everything around him was pretty rocky, with small plants cowering close to a wall. Well, small by this planet’s standard anyways – the bushy things still towered over him. He shivered a little; it was night time (how wonderful), and it was cold here. As he looked up and then down a slope, he realized he must have fallen on that mountain they could see from space. According to Alph, the colony ruins they were after was just east of here. 

His eyes widened and his heart raced. He scrambled to his feet despite his pain. “Alph!” he called out. “Alph! Alph are you-” After stumbling around for a little while he saw him. Charlie ran over and picked Alph up. “Alph! Hey I’m right here-” He got no response. Charlie’s heart raced faster. “Alph! Alph wake up!” He laid his hand on Alph's chest, trying his best to hold still. He could feel the engineer's heartbeat, and he was still breathing. Just knocked out still. “Oh… Oh thank fuck…” Charlie sat down, still holding onto Alph. He was okay, he was okay. He was alive, and would wake up soon. 

Charlie had no time to waste though. He had to contact the Drake, see if the others were okay. He didn’t see where they landed, he _had_ to check on them. 

As he reached for his kopad, however, he heard a strange sound. It reminded him of an out-of-tune instrument of some kind. 

“Who’s there?!” he demanded, looking around. Then he saw it. A single bright white eye staring down at him from the shadows. The body it belonged to had the rough shape of a pikmin but…. Something seemed off about it. It was too dark to tell what was wrong though. 

Charlie stood up, still holding onto Alph who squirmed a little in his sleep. “What _are_ you?!” he demanded. 

The pikmin didn’t respond. It just ran at Charlie, continuing to screech its horrible sound. 

Charlie didn’t get a good look at it. It might have had mushrooms growing out of its face? It definitely had a mouthful of sharp teeth though. Charlie doubted that it was friendly, and didn’t want to stick around to find out the hard way. He picked up Alph, carried him over his shoulders, and began to run. 

As he ran, he heard more screeches, and the sound of more of those _things_ chasing after him. He gritted his teeth as he tried to climb upwards to get away from the damn things. Then he heard something fly right past his ear. He turned around – it couldn’t have been a winged pikmin, could it? 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t. It had been a spear, and that spear was now lodged into the torso of whatever that weird pikmin was. Black goop poured out of the creature's wound as it screamed more. Charlie looked away, tried to focus on climbing more. 

He then saw even more pikmin, shining in a shade of pale white in the moonlight. They looked… fluffy? Many of them wielded spears, and were throwing them down at the creatures below. 

A few of them ran over to him and Alph. One held out a clawed hand, and after a second of hesitation he took it. The pikmin helped lift him up the mountain. Two pikmin from the group ran back to peel Alph off of Charlie and carry him themselves. Charlie continued to run and climb up the mountain with these strange new pikmin, leaving the demented cries of those creatures behind him. 

Charlie couldn’t remember if he managed to make the entire climb himself, or if the Pikmin had to carry him part way through. 

* * *

Louie woke up a little, only to hiss and flinch back. The sun was high in the sky, and it was blinding. It was also unbelievably hot. He patted around his spacesuit until he could find the fan button and turn it on. It didn’t help much – president cheeped out on it, of course – but it was better than nothing he supposed. 

He grunted as he got up. Dammit, he was sore. Why was he so sore? 

Oh. The crash landing. Yeah, that would do it. 

Louie looked around. He was in a desert of some kind, with cacti all around him. He panicked for a second – was he near the Formidable Oak? But no, nothing nearby clued him off on if he was anywhere near that beast's lair. Far to the east, he could just barely make out a mountain range. 

_Dammit, and the ruins are further east than that?! I don’t want to walk that far…_ he made a weird grumbling noise as he stretched. _Could wait for_ _Olimar_ _to rescue me, but…_ he looked around, turning this way and that and even poking around plants. _I think I’m all alone. Again._ _Wonderful._ He sighed and with not much better to do, chose a random direction to walk in. 

As he walked, he noticed some rubble. The more he walked the more rubble there was, light grey with rusted iron bars poking out here and there. Louie looked on in awe. The rubble was fair too ruined to tell what it once was but they still made Louie wonder. 

Louie laid eyes on another piece of wreckage, and stopped dead in his tracks. This one was much more intact, and was very clearly a building of some kind. It was amazing how well preserved it was. Though it was clear that some additional supports had been added some time after it’s ruin. Was something _trying_ to preserve it? 

It reminded Louie of a skyscraper. They weren’t too common on Hocotate, as they clashed horribly with the traditional organic shapes buildings took there. There were a lot of them on Koppai though. 

It looked like the top half of the building had toppled over. It was also over grown with some kind of dry looking desert vine. He could just barely see that something had been built up on the inside of the thing, but couldn’t tell what exactly it was. 

As he looked on, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Louie turned around quickly to try and get a better look. He saw nothing. 

Now agitated, he kept spinning around to try and find whatever that thing was. 

And then he made eye contact with it. 

It was a pikmin. It was average height, and had dark green skin. Four bright green eyes shone back at Louie. It very clearly had a mouth, jagged and wide. Its stem ended not in a flower or leaf of any sort, but rather… it almost looked like another, much smaller head that had only a mouth. It was also very flat, and not like anything Louie had ever seen before. 

Slowly but surely, it walked closer to him. Two others then appeared from behind some cacti, following behind the first. 

“Uh… Hello.” Louie waved his hand a bit. The first of the pikmin tilted their head before waving back at him. 

Louie smiled. It seemed no matter what kind of pikmin he met, they all seemed to be cute. He then blew his whistle to call them closer to him. 

They didn’t come closer. All they did was cover the sides of their heads, as if protecting some kind of invisible (or internal) ears. After a second the leader looked at Louie and hissed at him. 

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.” Louie held his hands up. 

The pikmin narrowed their eyes at him, before the leader turned and began to talk with the other two. Louie had heard pikmin speak before, but they usually only said a few words or would sing. He never heard them have a full conversation like this before. Not that it mattered; he couldn’t understand what it was they were saying. 

After a moment the pikmin looked back at Louie. Their leader pointed at Louie, then at the skyscraper. He wondered for a moment if their onion was in there. Louie suddenly yelped as a pikmin grabbed his arm and began to drag him along, walking towards the skyscraper. After a moment he was able to wiggle his arm free. 

“I can walk there myself.” He grumbled, rubbing the spot where he was grabbed. 

The pikmin just stared at him. Of course they didn’t understand him. He kept walking alongside them, and they didn’t try to grab at him again. Good. 

He sighed and looked up at the skyscraper again. He didn’t know what these strange new pikmin were, nor exactly what they wanted from him. At least he had some form of protection now…? 

He still hoped someone would find him soon. 

* * *

When Brittany woke up, all she saw was black. 

For a moment, she figured she was dead. But her body was too sore, and it smelled too much like… like… 

_Forest!_ She realized, pushing herself off of the ground. _I’m in a forest!_

She stood up, grumbling from the pain. She then had to wipe dirt off of her helmet. Looking down, she saw a rather Brittany-shaped skid mark in the dirt. 

“God damn. Is it at all possible to land here _without_ crashing?” she grumbled, now brushing dirt off from the front of her suit. 

It was only then that the details of their crash came to her. 

“Olimar! Olimar are you here?” she called out, looking around for him. 

It didn’t take long to find him. He was only a few feet away, submerged in a similarly Olimar-shaped skid. He began to stir and push himself up before Brittany could get too close. 

“B-Brittany?” He stood up, also groaning from pain. “Brittany, are the others okay…?” 

“I don’t know… I don’t think they’re nearby.” When a look of worry spread across his face, she offered “Hey… I’ll check my kopad, okay? See if anyone is closer than we thought.” 

She turned it on; thankfully it still worked. As she swiped around on the map, she frowned. 

“Well… I don’t see anyone nearby. But I do see the S.S. Drake. If we can get to it, and get it into space… it should be able to tell us where they’re at.” 

“Won’t we have the same problem you guys had before?” Olimar asked. “Running around in circles to see if each signal is the one you want?” 

“Not really. Er, in theory anyways. Alph fixed it – the Drake should be able to recognize your signal as yours, the captains as the captains, so on and so forth. We never got to test it much though.” 

“I see... And your kopads…?” 

“He wasn’t allowed to mess with them much. Mission leaders were angry enough when he set it up so we could read my fruit files. So we’ll still have to deal with vague signals here.” Brittany then motioned for Olimar to follow her. 

Olimar frowned a bit as he did follow her. “I see. That’s a shame.” 

The two were quiet as they walked along. Brittany occasionally looked down at her kopad to make sure they were still headed in the right direction. 

“I can see it!” Olimar cried out after a few minutes of walking. “And pikmin, too!” 

Brittany looked up. The Drake was there, in all its glory. There was also a red onion nearby as well, and red pikmin were crowding the ship. She smiled and quickly pocketed her kopad, running off to the ship and the pikmin. Olimar trailed close behind her. 

The pikmin looked up and made noises of excitement as they spotted the two explorers. They ran towards the aliens as well, soon crowding Brittany and Olimar. A few even hugged them. 

“Hey there…” Brittany cooed, brushing the pikmin's stems. “Seems you’ve been busy.” She looked around the group, as many of them wore simple clothing. It wasn’t much – the pikmin didn’t exactly need clothes for decency's sake. A few had basic vests. One seemed to have a bow tie. Another handful had ribbons tied around their stems. One had a soot covered apron of some kind. She even noticed that one or two had glasses. All of which seemed to be crudely made, of course. Mostly from grass and leaves and twigs. Maybe that apron was made out of animal skin of some sort? What little fabric there was seemed old and dirty. 

“How'd you learn to do this?” Olimar asked aloud. Of course, the pikmin didn’t respond. They didn’t understand them. The pikmin just kept staring at them, whispering amongst themselves. 

Eventually, the pikmin in the bow tie stepped up to them. They, too, were wearing some kind of vest. Once they had Brittany and Olimar's attention, they pointed at the S.S. Drake. 

“The Drake?” Brittany asked, mostly to Olimar. “What about the Drake?” 

The pikmin just pointed again. 

“Think they want to look at the inside of it? I mean, they are curious little things.” Olimar pointed out. 

“Maybe? I don’t see the harm in letting a few on board.” Brittany shrugged her shoulders, then began to walk to the Drake. “Just got to keep them out of trouble. If they break anything, I’ll never hear the end of it from Alph.” 

Olimar rolled his eyes a little and followed her. “As if Alph could stay mad at anybody.” 

“True. I mean, he mostly forgave Louie.” 

“I thought he entirely forgave him for that?” 

Brittany just shrugged, and had the Drake beam her, Olimar, and three pikmin into its hull (including the bow-tie pikmin). 

Once inside, the three pikmin looked on with awe. Even though they didn’t speak or understand galactic common, she still felt the need to point out where everything was. 

“This is the control room, where we can see the map and drive the ship and what not. Down that hall is the bedrooms, with a small bathroom at the end.” She faintly wondered if and how pikmin bathed for a second before continuing. “And then there’s the kitchen, where we store, prep, and eat our food.” 

The pikmin just… Looked at her, leaving Brittany to feel rather silly for a moment. Then the bow tie pikmin walked up to the main computer of the ship, and pointed at it. 

“Yeah, that’s the computer.” Brittany explained, walking up to it and pressing a button. In an instant a map appeared, showing the entire continent they were on. The pikmin cheered a little, and then the bow tie pikmin pointed at a location in the plains, east of the mountains. 

Brittany gave a nervous glance back at Olimar, who could only shrug. 

She zoomed into the area, and the pikmin pointed again. Clearly towards the area of that ruined colony. 

“They… want us to go there.” She realized, frowning. “Did… Did something happen?” 

Before Olimar could respond, the pikmin began to point again. This time to an area much closer, being in the same forest as they were. Now Brittany was confused – whatever it was they wanted her to see, it was being blocked by the trees. As Brittany tried to think of a way to explain this to the pikmin, a huge message popped up on screen. 

_A call! Maybe_ _it's_ _one of the others?_ Without hesitation she answered, and Captain Charlie’s face appeared on screen. 

“Oh, thank fuck.” Charlie sighed as he slouched a bit. “I’ve been trying to call the ship for so long...” He looked tired – well, he always looked tired. But even more so now. It also appeared that he was in a wooden building of some kind. 

“Where are you?” Brittany asked. Olimar stepped closer to her to be in Charlie’s eye line as well. 

“Uh, the mountains west of the ruins. Couldn’t tell you exactly where, other than near-ish the peak? The Drake should tell you exactly where I am. Alph is here too, but he’s still knocked out cold from the crash. The pikmin here are taking care of him though.” 

“You found pikmin, too?” Olimar asked. 

“Yeah. Weird fluffy ones, with claws. Never seen ‘em before.” 

Olimar hummed a little. “Can’t say that I have, either.” 

Charlie yawned a bit, then rubbed the sides of his helmet – as if he was trying to rub his temples. “Listen, it’s been rough here. We got chased by some weird mushroom pikmin and I haven’t slept much. I’m… I’m going to go off to bed. Or try to. Come get us as soon as you can.” 

Olimar’s ears twitched, and he spoke with a shaky voice. “Mushroom pikmin? I… I haven’t seen anything like that in a long time…” 

“Oh god dammit.” Charlie grumbled. “What are they?” 

“Vicious little creatures… Pikmin infected by the spores of the Puffstool. They’re… they’re not okay. They’re hostile – they try to attack healthy pikmin. Even tried to attack me.” He sighed, and Brittany frowned a little. “I hadn’t seen them in so long, I just assumed both species to be extinct...” 

“Ah fuck. Great, just what we need. Evil killer pikmin. Fuckin’ hell...” Charlie then let out a low, growl like noise. “At least them fluffy pikmin know how to deal with them. I’m going to get some sleep now. Bye.” 

Before Brittany or Olimar could interject (not that they wanted to), Charlie hung up the call. 

Brittany frowned. She didn’t particularly care for the captain, but she didn’t like seeing him miserable like this either. Whatever happened to them, and whatever those mushroom pikmin really were, it must have shaken him up badly for him to be _this_ short fused. 

She looked to the bowtie pikmin, who was looking at the map still. They turned to her and nodded, then walked off near where the Drake’s beam was. _At least they seem to understand…_ Brittany sighs and walks over to them. “Stand within the square.” She directed, helping the pikmin into it. “Then you hit this button.” She pointed at it, then backed off. The bow tie pikmin hit the button, and all three pikmin disappeared. 

“Smart little guys, huh?” Olimar commented. 

Brittany just nodded. “Yeah. I just… I just hope they’ll be okay.” 


	3. Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So somehow my dumb brain forgot to mention that this fic takes place in an AU .-. 
> 
> It doesn't change much, mostly just additions to the world building. But they are enough to warent the AU tag! The AU in question is called the "Star Touched AU" because I'm creative. 
> 
> ALSO this chapter has something in it that could be triggering, but I have zero idea how to properly word it as a warning. So uh, I guess this is your warning? And if you know how to word it please do tell me and I'll edit these notes to include a more proper warning.

_Alph walked_ _around_ _the_ _room_ _, a horrible feeling building in his gut. He knew this house. He wasn’t safe in this house. He had to get out, and soon._

_He fumbled and tripped over some old toys,_ _eventually making it to_ _the door. He panicked for a second as he found it to be locked._ _He kept struggling with it, but stopped when he heard something._ _Footsteps._ _Slow, loud, bumbling_ _footsteps._ _It was then soon followed by the cry of a bulborb,_ _and while it was clearly the sound of a bulborb it almost sounded as if it were talking._

_“Are you_ _asleep?”_

_Alph’s eyes widened and he stepped back, slipping on some toy car and falling with a loud and painful_ _thud._

_The sound of the_ _footsteps_ _came closer to his door._

_His eyes widened, and he quickly scrambled up and ran to the only other door in the room – the closet. He_ _shut_ _himself in, laying a box of clothes in front of the door. He backed up into a corner, the bottom of some shirts brushing against his head. He heard the bulborb open the bedroom door and enter, saw the shadow from the small gap beneath the door. He closed his eyes, covered his mouth, and waited for him to just leave._

_Eventually, the room was silent again. The feeling of clothes hanging above him disappeared, and a familiar yet hard to identify smell overtook the closet. He opened his eyes. The box was gone, and as he looked up, he realized he was in a pantry._

_Slowly, he stood up and opened the pantry door, stepping out of it. He looked around, realizing he was in Drake's kitchen. He walked to the kitchen window, looked out into the small yard – this was Drake’s house. He was okay. He laid his hands against the counter, trying to slow his breathing and relax. After a few seconds, however, Alph realized he had to stretch his arms above him to touch the counter top. He let go and stumbled backwards, the kitchen now growing taller and with more floor space by the second._

_He looked around, trying to figure out what happened,_ _and then he heard it. That clear, slick voice_ _. Somewhat deep, and thick_ _with the effort of lies._

_“Look at me, Alph.”_

_Alph sat there and shook violently. He didn’t turn around to look at him. He couldn’t – he was frozen with fear._

_“I said_ _look at me_ _.”_ _He snapped, and Alph felt a hand_ _grab him and forced him to turn around._ _His heart quickened_ _and his ears leaned back_ _as the Plasm Wraith towered over him._

_Alph grabbed onto his right arm as it flared up with a searing pain._ _The Plasm Wraith laughed._

_“Why are you even here?”_ _it asked in it’s cold and cruel voice._ _“You won’t help them much.”_

_“I… t-the pikmin… they needed-“_

_“Oh! The_ pikmin _. Yes, I’m sure what they need is an engineer who doesn’t want to be here, and can’t even use his right arm!”_

_“I-I can still use-“_ _he stopped mid_ _-_ _sentence to let out a scream, as the_ _pain in his arm worsened._ _He curled up,_ _waiting for the pain to go away._

_The Plasm Wraith laughed again._ _“As if you'll be anything other than a disappointment."_

Alph shook more, and the temperature changed suddenly. His body was unbearably hot, yet his face felt cold. He woke with a start, throwing the thick cover off of his body. He looked dead ahead, not knowing where he was other than that it was cold here. 

Something touched his right arm, and he pulled away from it. Still breathing heavily and with tears pricking at his eyes, he turned to whatever it was that touched him. He was angry. And sad. And tired. And hungry. And overwhelmed. 

None of those feelings came to fruition, however, as he locked eyes with a pikmin. 

It was taller than most, with pale white fur covering its body. A thick mantle of grey fur sat around its neck and chest, and the mane had some various objects tied into it. Two pupil-less eyes stared back at him, a third painted “eye” in the middle. 

The two sat in silence for a while before the pikmin gently began to rub Alph's back, softly cooing some words he couldn’t understand. _I had a nightmare._ He realized. _It… It was just a nightmare. That’s all. I can stop being freaked out now._ Of course, it wasn’t that simple. It never would be, and never could be. Tears were streaking down his face now, and he let out a grunt of annoyance when his helmet got in the way of him being able to wipe them off. 

The pikmin stopped and then held onto Alph's arm again, as if checking it over for injuries. “I-I'm okay.” Alph insisted, causing the pikmin to look up at him. “I promise. There’s nothing to check over.” 

The pikmin just gave him a look. Right. Language barrier. He looked away again, now rocking a bit. He wanted to move, to run, to do _something_. But something told him to stay in this odd bed, so he rocked back and forth instead. Soon the pikmin left, and Alph took a better look at his surroundings. He was in a tent of some kind, filled with many empty beds. Crude looking shelves dotted the place, filled with dried plants, knifes, and mortar-and-pestles. Three large wooden poles stood in the center, holding the whole thing up. Four more poles were at the corners as well. The floor was mostly a rocky dirt, but he could see snow blowing in from the entrance. The entire thing seemed to be made of a leather of some kind. Alph looked down at his blanket. It too was made of animal fur of some kind. He wasn’t sure what his bed was stuffed with – it wasn’t as nice as his bed in the Drake, but it was surprisingly comfortable. 

_Did… did the pikmin build all of this?_ He wondered . _They… they’ve really grown sense last time. Or it could just be these new pikmin in particular…_

He looked up with a jump when he heard something enter the tent. Charlie stood there at the entrance, just staring at Alph for a second before running over to him. 

“Y-You’re awake!” he exclaimed. “You were out cold for so long, I was worried…” he sighs and sat on the bed next to him. “But you’re awake now. That’s what matters.” 

Alph smiled softly, before frowning again. “Out cold...? Charlie, what _happened_?” 

Charlie frowned a little in response. “We… We crash landed again.” 

Alph suddenly remembered. The lights going off, him losing control of the Drake. He brought his hand closer to his mouth (or as close as he could with his helmet in the way) and started to cry again. “I-I… I couldn’t-“ 

“Hey, hey, it’s not your fault. You did your best. It’s okay…” Charlie gently grabbed hold of Alph’s hands. “It’s okay…” he repeated, now rubbing the shorter koppaite's hands with his thumbs. 

Alph calmed down a little. Then he tensed again – there was only one other time Charlie acted like this, and… Alph looked away. “It was my job to keep the ship running smoothly. I failed. And now… everyone’s…” 

“You didn’t fail anyone. You did everything correctly. There’s something up with this planet. And the others are okay – Brittany and Olimar found the Drake, and they’re on their way.” 

Alph was quiet for a moment. “And… Louie?” 

Charlie froze, as if not expecting that question. “I don’t know where he is. Other two might though. Besides, with that update you programed into the Drake's sensors we should be able to find him in no time.” 

Alph nodded. “Mh-hm.” 

“Alph…” Charlie squeezed his hands a little tighter, and leaned his helmet against the engineer's. “It’ll be okay. I promise.” 

Alph’s ears leaned back. _God, I’m being such an asshole. He’s just trying to make me feel better._ He moved over to give Charlie an awkward and clunky hug, still shaking a bit. 

After a few moments, Alph fell asleep into a dreamless slumber. 

* * *

Louie followed the pikmin into the ruined sky scraper. As they got closer, more and more of these strange green pikmin joined their group. He also realized just how _massive_ this thing was. What remained of a door towered over him, going up several meters high. 

As Louie looked into the building he gasped a bit – wooden structures lined the walls, with bridges linking the buildings together. In the center was a green onion, nearby it was a yellow one. The green onion looked more natural, like the ones he saw when he first came to the planet. The yellow onion was more mechanical though, just like last time. 

The green pikmin ran over to a group of yellows who were… wearing clothes? Vests, glasses, ribbons… they didn’t wear a lot of clothes, and what they did wear looked crude, but some did wear clothing. 

The two groups of pikmin talked, and the yellows soon looked up and at Louie. They ran over to him, excited cries escaping them. A few of them hugged him. Louie smiled wide as he stroked their stems, ignoring the weird stares the green pikmin gave him. 

“How have you guys been?” Louie asked. The pikmin didn’t respond. Rather one yellow pikmin in particular grabbed hold of his wrist to try and lead him somewhere. Louie stumbled a bit, but went ahead and followed them. They led him up and onto the bridges that encircled the ruined skyscraper. They pointed various buildings out to him, where small groups of those green pikmin huddled together to sing or dance or just talk. They passed a large, important looking building. Peeking in Louie saw a green pikmin who wore a cape of some kind, sitting alongside a small white pikmin. The green pikmin glared at him, and so he looked away. 

As they walked, the leader of the pikmin would move their hands around and talk excitedly. They eventually turned around to Louie and said something else. 

Louie tilted his head. “I’m sorry… I don’t know what you’re saying.” 

The pikmin stared at him before rubbing the side of their head and grumbling, as if just realizing the language barrier between them. 

Before Louie could say anything else, the pikmin beckoned him to follow and then began to make its way higher and higher up the sky scraper.

The trip took several minutes, and by the end Louie felt sore. He groaned as they reached the top, but as he looked around… the desert was beautiful, though hauntingly so thanks to the ruins that dotted the landscape. Louie turned to the pikmin smiling, and they seemed pleased as well. For a moment the group just sat there, enjoying the land and soaking up the sun. Then something caught his eye. Louie turned and saw something crawl around in the distance, glittery and black. Louie tilted hid head in wonder of what it could be, but as it stood up and revealed its true silhouette, he felt his stomach drop. 

There was no mistaking it. 

That was a wraith. 


	4. Reunion

Olimar  was beamed out of the Drake, Brittany at his side.  He shivered a little as he walked  out, snow blowing around his feet. 

“Damn cheap suits.” He grumbled. 

“Tell me about it, they’re  _ awful. _ ” Brittany echoed his frustrations. 

Olimar looked around the area. A  mechanical, light grey onion stood tall in the center of a cleared area. Surrounding the onion were various  wooden buildings,  alongside a leather tent.  A very small number of fluffy white pikmin walked around the place, a few stopping to stare at the aliens.  They were all wearing... crude sunglasses?

“Did… did the pikmin  _ build  _ this?” Brittany asked, taken aback by the sight. The buildings…  Olimar wouldn’t call them well built – they were  _ clearly  _ pikmin made - but they still stood sturdy,  and he trusted that they wouldn’t collapse in on themselves. 

After a moment of staring one of the pikmin slipped into  the tent. A few moments  later , the pikmin came back out with Alph and Charlie in tow. 

“Olimar!” Charlie called out. “ You guys were quick!” 

Alph just stared at them, looking as if he just woke up. 

“Of course. We couldn’t leave you guys out here.”  Brittany crossed her arms as she spoke. “ So , I guess Louie is next.” She grumbled a bit. 

“Do you know where he is?” Charlie asked. 

“Thanks to Alph's upgrades to the Drake, yes.” Olimar began. Alph looked away, seeming a little flushed from the comment. “He’s further west of here, in some kind of desert area. Not too far away though, we can still get to him today if we’re quick.” 

“There’s a  _ desert  _ near here?!”  Charlie stared at Olimar, seemingly baffled. 

“Well, yeah. This cold is mostly from altitude. Plus , mountains often end up as rain barriers, kee-“ Olimar paused mid - sentence, then shook his head. “Never mind that. Let’s… Let’s just go and save Louie.” 

“Alrighty.” Brittany grumbled as she stretched a bit. Alph and Charlie simply nodded. Captain Charlie walked up to the Drake, and everyone was beamed inside.  Alph and Charlie immediately ran into the kitchen, in where they quickly downed a bottle of  juice they split between themselves. Once done with their meal, they returned to the control room. Alph sat down and began to fly the S.S. Drake off to the desert. 

Olimar looked out the window, watching as the Pikmin’s village grew smaller and smaller. It was then he saw the Onion was still down there. “Hey, uh, Charlie?” He looked up. “Those Pikmin you found... they’re not following us.”

“What?” Charlie ran over to the window, looking down as well. “Shit. So no pikmin then?”

Olimar shook his head. “The red onion we found didn’t follow us either. Maybe they only fly at night?”

“I  dunno ...”he frowned, as if trying to remember something. “Could have something to do with the colony.”

Olimar frowned as well, then looked away – the mountain range now shrinking far behind them. “I... I hope not.” 

“At least we found pikmin.” Brittany spoke, approaching the other two. “And the red onion did fly – it just flew elsewhere. They probably had places to be.”

“Places to be? Where would  _ pikmin  _ ever need to be?” Charlie furrowed his brow. 

“I’m... not sure.” Olimar closed his eyes as he spoke. “The reds we met were wearing simple clothes though. Very simple clothes... So were those fluffy ones! Did you see their sunglasses?”

“Yeah. They weren't wearing them last night through.” Charlie’s expression changed the moment he finished his sentence. “Last night! It was nighttime when I ran into them – are they  _ nocturnal _ ?”

“Last night? How long were we out for then, Olimar?”

The captain shrugged. “I’m... not too sure Brittany.” He turned back to Charlie. “There was only a few of them out today as well... were there more?”

“So many more. All fighting off those weird mushroom lookin’ pikmin I saw.” he frowned a little. “Both pikmin are really creepy in all honesty. Neither had pupils, and the mushrooms had  _ teeth _ .”

“No pupils?” Olimar asked. Charlie shook his head. “They really must be nocturnal then. And that explains the sunglasses! Without pupils, any light is way too harsh.” Olimar closed his eyes and began to hum a little. “Nocturnal pikmin... I shouldn’t be surprised, but I never thought I’d ever meet such creatures.”

“Maybe when this whole thing is over, we can study them a little more.” Brittany offered. “There’s still more weirdness about them I’d like to figure out. Like their claws. And weird face paint.”

“Hey guys?” Alph called from the control panel. “We’re just about there. I’m going to land as close as possible to Louie’s signal.” He frowned a little. “There’s a lot of rubble here... It may not be a very, ah, graceful landing.”

Brittany and Charlie grumbled a bit as they held onto some nearby safety handles, which were placed all over the spaceship. Olimar grabbed on as well. The ship wobbled this way and that as Alph wound his way through the rubble. He didn’t hit anything though, and the Drake landed softly onto the ground. 

The crew wasted no time donning their helmets once more and jumping out of the Drake. Olimar flinched a little as he was greeted by harsh sunlight and an unbelievably high temperature. It only took him a second to find his suit’s internal fan – it didn’t help too much but he’d rather be with it than without.

He turned to the others who were all standing still, staring at the ruins. Charlie was... shaking a little? As  Olimar looked around he realized why – these ruins vaguely resembled a city. Most of all, the tower before them was undeniably a skyscraper. It  _ almost  _ looked  koppaite made, save for a few small but key differences. And of course, it’s absolutely enormous size. Coupled with the fact that most of  Koppai was a desert...

Charlie was the first to speak. "We need to find Louie.” his voice was tense, and he spoke quickly. As if trying to hold something back, 

The others nodded, and followed Louie’s signal into the sky scrapper. 

When they walked in, the first thing they were greeted with were some green pikmin. They stared at the aliens, their four eyes seemingly sizing the group up. Then they saw yellow pikmin, who immediately ran at the group to give them all hugs. Charlie flinched away a little before calming down and returning some hugs to the little guys. 

Olimar looked around, amazed at the community these pikmin were able to build up. Small wooden structures lined the walls, with bridges and ramps connecting them all together. He smiled a little, continuing to look around this way and that to get a feel for the entire village.

And then Olimar spotted Louie. 

“Louie!” he called out, running past some pikmin to get to him. “Are you alright?”

“Me? Yeah, yeah I’m fine...” Louie pulled his arms up and behind his head. “I’m more worried about you, old man.”

Olimar crossed his arms, raised a brow, and smirked a little. “ _ Old Man _ ? Really?”

Louie smirked back. “Yes, really.” 

Olimar stood there for a second before laughing a little. “I’m glad to have you back, kid.”

Louie finally lowered his arms as he shrugged, hands facing upwards. “And I’m glad you found me.” 

Before either could say anything else, Alph slowly approached them. “Hey... I’m sorry to interrupt but we should head for the colony now.” 

Olimar sighed and then nodded. “Alright. Ready to go, Louie?”

In an instant Louie’s mood changed, his slight smile being replaced with a deadpan. He simply nodded, then began to follow  Olimar closely. 

As the group left the sky scrapper, only then did Olimar notice a yellow pikmin talking to another one of those green pikmin, one with a cape. Next to it was a small white pikmin wearing a bow around its neck, who immediately darted from sight when he made eye contact. 

Olimar was being beamed back into the Drake before he could process any of that, however. 

Everyone quickly got into their places, preparing to rise to the sky once more. Before Alph could start liftoff, however... 

A yellow pikmin was beamed into the Drake. 

“How did you get in here?” Charlie demanded. The pikmin ignored him, however. It walked straight up to the Drake’s computer, hit a button, and made the map come on.

“Hey! Don’t touch that!” Alph scolded the pikmin, trying to gently push its hand’s away. It responded by slapping Alph’s hand away, causing the engineer to flinch back a little. Before anyone could say or do anything, it managed to zoom into a particular part of the map. It then pointed at it, staring at everyone intensely. 

“What does that even mean?!” Charlie demanded, clearly agitated.

“I... Brittany, isn’t that the same spot the red pikmin pointed out to us earlier?” Olimar turned to her. 

“Yeah, yeah it is.” she turned to the others, who looked confused. “I...  _ might  _ have let a few red pikmin on board this morning. They didn’t touch anything though! And they certainly were not so  _ rude _ !” she turned to the yellow pikmin, who simply glared back at her. “While on the Drake, they seemed really curious about it. So, I showed them around, including showing them the map. They pointed out that same location to us.”

They all looked at her for a moment before turning back to the map. The pikmin was now more insistent with pointing out that location.

“I’m... I’m even more afraid that something happened there.” Olimar spoke up. “I... we  _ need  _ to go there. Now.”

Charlie nodded. “Alrighty then. Alph, make course for that location.”

“Yes sir.” 

And with that, the Drake took off. 

The yellow pikmin hardly moved away from the computer, standing over the group as if to make sure they went where it wanted them to go.  _ I’ve never seen a pikmin act like this before... I hope whatever happened there didn’t shake them up too much.  _ Olimar sighed, then walked over to Louie who was looking out the window.

“Look, the yellow and green onions are following us.” Louie pointed out. 

“Oh! That’s good. The other onions we found didn’t for some odd reason.” He looked out the window as well. “Those buildings though... are they not these pikmins’ homes?”

“I... I think so.” Louie frowned and looked down. “I don’t think they had much a choice to leave though...”

“Why do you say that?”

“I... think they’re evacuating.” 

“Evacuating?” Charlie asked, now stepping closer. “What do you mean by that?”

Louie simply looked away, refusing to talk now. 

“Hey, Louie. Look at me.” Olimar instructed. The younger man turned his head as asked. “What makes you think the pikmin are evacuating?”

“I...” Louie stuttered a bit. Charlie opened his mouth to speak again, but stopped when  Olimar raised his hand.

“I saw a wraith.” he finally managed out. “It looked just like the plasm wraith but it was black. It was really far away. The pikmin still seemed freaked out over it though... I think they’re leaving their homes... b-because of it.” The man then turned away, hand placed firmly over his mouth, and looked out the window. Olimar knew from experience that he wouldn’t get anything more out of Louie for a good while. 

Charlie just looked over to Brittany, who could only shrug. They had no idea what was going on with this planet. 

All they could do was hope the pikmin would be okay.    



	5. Scarlet

When the Drake flew into the forest, the crew realized immediately why the pikmin wanted them to come here. 

There was another colony here, and this one didn’t appear to be ruined. 

They landed somewhat near the colony, and quickly ran out. What were they going to do if there were people here? What  _ could  _ they realistically do?

Olimar scrunched his face up as he saw the two onions land within the walls of the colony. “What are they  _ doing _ ?” he asked the others. 

“Something really stupid.” Charlie responded, staring up at the walls of the place. 

Then the yellow pikmin came running out of the Drake. It seemed to be in a much better mood now, and was bouncing around and pointing at the walls. 

“Yeah... I see that, little one.” Olimar grumbled a little. In the middle of the wall there was a great gate, and on either side of the gate were two watch towers. A shadow suddenly appeared in the one, staring down at the crew. They all froze, unsure of what was going to happen. The shadow disappeared, and soon the gate began to open. 

Charlie held his arm out in front of the crew, as if it would protect them all somehow. They peered into the city, trying to see what it was that made its home here, but... all they saw were  pikmin . Hundreds and hundreds of  pikmin . 

Most of the buildings seemed fairly simple, and hardly went more than a story high, save for a tower in the middle surrounded by a few two-story buildings. The buildings were made of several different kinds of materials: stone, wood, and pottery. The tower’s material was  unfamiliar to  Olimar , however, but it looked smooth and much stronger than the rest of the buildings. 

They clearly could see a town square of sorts, filled with countless onions both standalone and merged. The crew just... stared, not knowing what to make of the sight at first. 

And then it hit Olimar. 

“The Pikmin made this! This isn’t a colony – it's the pikmin’s own city!” 

The others looked at him, then back at the city. Olimar knew he was right – he just had to be! What else could this little city full of pikmin be? Besides those buildings were very clearly pikmin made, to put it nicely. 

Soon pikmin began to file out of the gates, gently tugging on the explorers’ arms and urging them to enter. The others relaxed a little, and stepped into the walls. The city wasn’t too big, and they could see all the walls from any spot so long as no buildings blocked their line of sight. The buildings were not very tall – the walls themselves were the tallest thing there. The pikmin crowded around the explorers, hurriedly trying to point to this thing or that. There were so many of them too! Reds, yellows, blues, rocks, wings, purples, whites! Even a few of those fluffy ones and of course the green ones, too. There were even a small handful of pikmin Olimar had never even seen before, ranging in all sorts of colors. Most wore those simple clothes the red pikmin they met wore. 

“This... this is amazing!” Olimar was beaming. 

“It... it really is.” Alph replied.

“I... I hate to bring the mood down but... what does this mean for those colony ruins?” Brittany asked. 

Olimar’s ear twitched. “I’m... not sure. I suppose we’ll still have to investigate that.” A red pikmin then began to tug on his arm. He looked down at the pikmin. Ah, the bow tie one from this morning! “Hello there, what did you need?”

The  pikmin pointed at  the central tower.  It then tugged at him again, urging him to follow. 

“Guys, I think they want us over there.” he pointed to the same building. 

The others nodded and began to follow  Olimar and the  pikmin into the building. The first room appeared to be a lobby of some kind. Then they were led into a large, open room with lots of chairs and a large table. The crew looked at each other as the  pikmin guided them to sit in the chairs, which fortunately were able to hold them. Soon after more  pikmin entered the room – a yellow with a long ribbon attached to its stem, a blue with a vest sporting an artificial fin on the back, a white also sporting a vest, a purple with a bow tie and crude glasses, a rock with some fabric tied around its wrist (seemed clothing wasn’t easy for their bulky bodies), and finally a winged with a scarf around its neck. Most of their clothing seemed to be made of weaved grass, but a few had true fabric on – though the fabric appeared to be salvaged from elsewhere. All of the  pikmin took seats at the table as well, quiet as they waited. 

Alph turned to Olimar. “What’s going on...?”

“I have no idea.”

About a minute or so passed, and soon one of the green pikmin – this one donning a long cape clearly made from bulbear hide – and a small white pikmin entered the room. This white pikmin looked a little different from the first. Besides the red ribbon tied around its neck, its eyes were a much darker shade of red and its flower was red instead of pink. The two walked to the table, the green pikmin sitting down while the white pikmin stood to the room. It began to talk in pikish to the other pikmin, seeming nervous. All the while the green pikmin appeared nervous too, looking at the white pikmin. Eventually the white pikmin took a deep breath and looked to the explorers. 

“Hello.”

They all sat there, staring at the pikmin.  _ Did – Did that pikmin just speak in galactic common??? _

The pikmin stared a little. “Uh... h-hello. My name is Scarlet. Scarlet of the Angelic Ruin’s troop of Flytraps. I’ve heard much about all of you, especially you Red Leader.”

It took Olimar a second to realize the pikmin was talking about him. “Oh! M-My name is Olimar.” 

“Olimar...” Scarlet repeated. “That’s a wonderful name!” her voice squeaked with a childlike quality. Well, all pikmin spoke like that, but it was even more apparent in this one. “Do the rest of you have names?”

After a stunned moment, the others managed to introduce themselves.

Scarlet giggled. “You all have wonderful names! I love them!” 

Olimar couldn’t help but smile. This  pikmin was just too precious, and reminded him of his own little girl back home. 

The red  pikmin then whispered something in  Pikish to Scarlet, causing the light to die from her eyes. “Oh... yeah. We – we had something important to tell you, but I’m the only one who can. Which is why Gild brought you here.” She sighed and began to shake a little, looking at the green  pikmin . The green  pikmin gave a soft smile in response. “We... Wraiths have begun to appear more and more frequently, attacking any lone groups of  pikmin . They’re why the first city is gone. They’re why the Flytraps of the Angelic Ruins had to leave our home.” She looked away a little. “We... I don’t want to do this anymore.” Tears began to prick at her eyes.  “I don’t want to – mom! Mom I-” she turned to the green  pikmin again, now crying and babbling in  pikish . Scarlet hugged the taller  pikmin tightly, and some of the others gave annoyed glances. More conversations in  pikish that couldn’t be understood, followed by the green  pikmin hissing at the rest of them before carrying Scarlet out of the room. The door slammed shut behind the two. 

Olimar stared at the door, his ears leaned back. Scarlet seemed so much like a child, but he never thought... it made his heart ache. It also made him miss home a little more. 

He turned back at the other pikmin, now a little agitated. Was it really worth to have a translator if said translator was a child?

… how did she know galactic common? And more importantly... how was that green  pikmin her mother?

T he anger died away when he saw the fear in their eyes. Right. Wraiths. They were dealing with some of the most dangerous creatures this planet had  to  offer. Which meant that the  pikmin were still in danger. 

Now without a translator, the red pikmin – Gild – opted to put a hand to Olimar, which he pulled to his chest. He then stared intensely at the hocotation. 

Olimar knew what he was trying to a sk. “Yes, yes we’ll help.” 

* * *

The crew was quiet as they entered the Drake, and as they entered low orbit for the night. Olimar faintly noted that the onions stayed on the ground – maybe they felt safe inside the city at night? He was mostly still caught up over poor Scarlet though. 

Louie then broke the silence. 

“Scarlet was a child. A  _ child _ .” he insisted, venom dripping from his voice. 

“We noticed that.” Brittany gave the man a glare. 

“What, do you not care that those pikmin had AN ACTUAL CHILD try and explain all that shit to us?”

“Louie, please calm do-” 

Brittany cut Olimar off. “Yes, yes I  _ do _ care, asshole.” 

“Then could you at least act like it? She. Was. A. Chi-” 

“Louie, just be quiet for a moment.” Charlie stepped in. “It was fucked up. But what can we do about it? The kid said it herself – she's the only  pikmin that can speak galactic common for whatever reason. We care. But there’s no other option.”

“There are plenty of other options! Body language, images,  _ something,  _ ANYTHING is better than dragging a child into that mess!” 

“Louie.” Olimar stepped in, hand on the younger’s shoulder. “You’re right. You’re right, but yelling won’t prove it nor fix things.” He looked up. “Everyone... just calm down, and give each other space, okay?” It was then Olimar noticed Alph in the corner, shaking and on the brink of tears. 

Louie had noticed Alph as well. “I’m... I’m leaving then.” He wormed his way through the others, and left. 

The crew stared at Louie as he left. A very awkward silence pervaded through the rest of the night. 

* * *

Alph woke up, breathing heavily and shaking a little. He just laid there in his bed for a little while, staring at the wall.  _ Dammit _ . He curled up a little, clinging onto his legs.  _ When will these goddamn nightmares end? _ They seemed nonstop over the past year. Year and a month if he wanted to count the nightmares he had when they first came here to PNF-404. Just about anything seemed to set them off – broken glass, yelling, stress. Absolutely nothing at all sometimes. He just wanted them to stop, and he didn’t know how to get them to stop. 

It was then Alph realized he had started to cry at some point. Dammit, now this? 

Why couldn’t he just be fucking  _ normal _ . 

He smeared his tears away as he slowly got up. He was going to go and get a drink of water, head back to bed, and sleep. No stupid nightmares, and no more crying. 

He shuffled out of his room and to the Drake’s kitchen. He filled up a glass with water, downed it, then filled it with water again and downed that drink too. He just left the glass in the sink – too tired to clean it – and began to shuffle back to his room. 

_ Oh no.  _ He froze for a second when he saw Charlie, who had just stepped out of the bathroom and had noticed him. 

“Alph?” he asked quietly. “Is... is everything okay?”

“I’m fine.” Alph insisted, sounding a little snappier than he wanted to. His voice was also clearly choking with tears. 

“Alph...” Charlie was suddenly much closer – how did he move that fast?! - “Alph I... I don’t know what’s going on. But you know that I’m here for you, right?”

“I-I...” Alph stood there, stuttering. 

“Please, whatever this is... don’t try to go at it alone, okay?” 

Alph shook for a moment longer before leaning into Charlie and sobbing more. The captain responded by hugging him tightly. He didn’t know how long he had stood there, crying into the taller man’s shoulder. All he knew was that at one point he stopped, but still stood there in his arms. He... felt safe here. He didn’t want to leave. He nuzzled further into Charlie’s shoulder, slowly feeling more and more content with just being here.

“You doin’ better now, Alph?” Charlie asked, his voice soft.

“Y-Yeah...” Alph sighs, pulling away a bit. He looked up at the taller man. “Thank you.”

Charlie smiled a little. “Of course, Alph. Just let me know if you need anything else, okay?”

Alph couldn’t help but smile back. Charlie was just so sweet, and that soft smile made him look so- Alph blushed fiercely and looked away.  _ I – I shouldn’t be feeling like this. He’s my captain!  _ “I will.” he managed out. “I... I should go to bed though. I’m tired.”

Charlie nodded, and pulled himself away from Alph. “Of course. Good night Alph.”

“G-Goodnight,  Captain. ” And with that, Alph slipped past Charlie  and into his own room. There, he curled up in his bed overcome with a new emotion .  Several new emotions. Cuddling his pillow, he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this chapter, I've posted all chapters that have been reviewed by my beta reader. I'm also about halfway through what I wrote as a buffer prior to posting chapter one. Updates may be a lil slower in the future as a result. THAT BEING SAID, I'm officially on holiday break from school! So I'll have more time to write and refill the buffer some. 
> 
> I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far! :D Scarlet here is a lil OC who is very dear to me, and so I hope you enjoy the screen time with her! She's fairly important, so she'll be popping up regularly.


	6. Venus

Louie wandered around the weird city aimlessly. 

After that weird little fight from the previous night, he just wanted to get away from the others for a bit. The pikmin they had talked to had yet to specify what they wanted them to do about the wraiths. So until then, he may as well explore a bit. 

There really wasn’t much new to see – he passed by the same kind of buildings he saw yesterday, and saw the same kind of pikmin too. A few looked at him. A few more waved to him, and he would wave back. 

Maybe, just maybe, things would be okay? He was still ticked at the pikmin who thought to use Scarlet as a translator, but he hadn’t yet run into them. Hopefully that meant that Scarlet was somewhere safe with her mot- 

He was stopped mid-thought when a pikmin tapped him on his shoulder. He turned around, and frowned. A group of pikmin, all of varying colors, were standing before him. Poor little Scarlet was in the front of the group. 

“T-They want to know what... what it’s like on Hocotate.” the white pikmin spoke, looking down at her feet. 

“No.” Louie grunted, then began to make shooing motions with his hands. The other pikmin may not understand his words, but they usually seemed to understand his mannerisms. “No. I’m not telling you guys. Shoo.” 

The pikmin began to walk away, seemingly annoyed. Scarlet started to follow them at first, before turning back to look at Louie. “Why did you tell them no?” 

“I figured you didn’t want to be a part of it.” Louie shrugged. 

Scarlet was quiet for a moment. “... I don’t.” she finally spoke. 

Louie nodded. “And that’s okay. Do... do you need help getting back to your mom, now?” 

“Yes.” she nodded quickly, then ran over to Louie. “She’s over there.” She explained, pointing at a building. 

With a nod, Louie began to walk there. They were silent for the most part, but around half way through their trip Scarlet looked up at Louie. 

“You’re... You know a lot about pikmin?” she asked. 

Louie shrugged. “Olimar knows more. I know a bit though.” 

“Do you know why I can talk like you guys can?” 

“Y-You don’t know?” he turned to the pikmin. 

She shook her head. “No, not really. Just that I was born being able to.” 

“I'm not sure either. You’re the first pikmin I met who could… The first pikmin I met to have a mom to boot.” 

Scarlet looked sad at first, until Louie mentioned her mother. “Yeah! Pikmin don’t really have moms. I’m not sure why I call her mom though… it just… it just fits her.” 

Louie nodded. “I understad.” The two then turned a corner as they further approached the building. 

“You know, I still remember the day I met her.” Scarlet closed her eyes, making a strange hum-like sound. “I was very sick when she found me. I remember laying on her lap. I couldn’t find her when I woke up, but then she came back! And I’ve lived her and the rest of the troop sense!” 

Louie smiled a bit. “That’s wonderful.” He looked up as they approached a short building made from… pottery? “We’re here.” 

Scarlet squealed a bit and then opened the door. “Well? Come on in!” 

Louie slowly stepped in, feeling a little awkward. The house was small, only having the one room. There were several green pikmin – didn’t Scarlet say they were Flytraps? - in it, including the caped one from yesterday. 

The caped pikmin stood up quickly, gave Scarlet a tight hug, and… Louie could only assume she was scolding Scarlet based on her tone of voice and Scarlet's ashamed expression. Once done she sighed and looked up to Louie, saying something. 

“I’m sorry… I… I don’t understand.” 

“M-Momma Venus says thank you.” Scarlet translated quickly. “And… And that she’s sorry for the trouble. She wants to give you something.” 

Before Louie could argue, Venus turned around and dug around in some stock piles. She returned with something wrapped in cloth. 

Louie took it, and gently unwrapped it to find… dried meat? 

“It’s bulborb jerky! It’s a Flytrap's favorite!” 

Louie looked up at the Flytraps. Well, with their mouths and weird external teeth, and the extra head as a leaf… Yeah, it made sense they were carnivores. Olimar would be _very_ interested to hear this! 

“Thank you.” He wrapped the meat back up and bowed deeply. He was a little shocked when, as he was standing upright again, he saw that Venus had mirrored his actions. Did the pikmin pick up on Hocotation customs? Did this happen to be a Flytrap thing as well? Or did she just mimic him in the hopes of appearing polite? Whatever the case, it brought a smile to Louie’s face. 

With Scarlet home and a big bag of jerky in tow, he figured it about time to return to the Drake. He turned around, left the house, and made his way back to the ship. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the minor hiatus. Started work on a one shot for a secret santa (which is posted here and you should 100% go read it) and then holidays also happened. 
> 
> It's a shorter chapter today, but I hope you enjoyed none the less! :D


	7. The Himbo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just want to say that unlike most other chapters, my beta gave me no re-working advice on this chapter. Just spelling fixes and a note that the chapter title is "glorious [and] brilliant". 
> 
> Thus this is a PERFECT chapter and you cannot debate me on this. 
> 
> (also yes hi we are BACK! I'm adding in my beta's suggestions up to chapter ten after this, so uh ye haw!!!)

“We just landed. How could he have disappeared so quickly?” Brittany demanded. 

Alph and Charlie were only able to shrug, and so she turned to Olimar. 

“Louie, ah, has a way of doing things.” the captain replied sheepishly. 

“You don’t say.” 

“I know you guys have a history, but please give him a bit of a break.” Olimar’s tone changed suddenly, sounding more stern than usual. “He’s probably still upset is all, and left to cool off on his own accord. He’ll be back when he’s ready.” 

Brittany grumbled a bit, but she wasn’t going to argue any further. She didn’t want to make Alph upset again. He was almost like a little brother to her by this point, and like hell she’d let him come to any more harm – physical or mental. 

“So, ah...” Alph began, sounding awkward, “Now that we’re back together, mostly anyways, do we, uh, want to unpack everything?” 

“... unpack?” Brittany asked. 

“You know. The crash. The city. So much has happened so quickly, I just...” He looked to the side a bit. 

Brittany couldn’t help but frown. He’s changed so much sense their first mission here. He used to be so much more confident and talkative. His unending spiels about seemingly anything and everything could get annoying, but she’d do anything to get them back. 

“Sounds good to me.” Olimar responded. “So, when Brittany and I found the red pikmin, they were wearing clothes.” 

“And those fluffy guys had buildings too!” Charlie finally spoke, voice ungodly loud as usual. 

Seems they were going to just talk about the pikmin, rather than “unpack” like Alph had suggested. Maybe it was for the better. 

Alph nodded. “Medicine too, I think. That’s what the stuff in the tent looked like to me, anyways.” 

“Did they try to give you any of it?” Brittany asked, a little worried. 

“No. I just saw it was all. All I really did in that tent was sleep...” Alph looked away a bit, ears twitching. 

“Well it’s a good thing those fluffy pikmin managed to help you.” Brittany laid an elbow on Alph’s shoulder. “I’d hate to see something happen to my favorite lil’ engineer.” 

Alph narrowed his eyes at her. “Uh huh, I’m sure.” Brittany could only smirk in response. 

“I-I could have protected him just fine on my own.” Charlie suddenly interjected. 

Brittany looked up at him, struggling to hold back laughter. _Oh my god._

“I mean, I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to... to my – to you either.” Charlie seemed to puff up a bit. 

Brittany was now covering her mouth to hide her smile and hold back laughter. She made eye contact with Olimar, and while she had no words to describe his expression, she _knew_ it meant he knew too. 

Evidently, it seemed Alph didn’t realize it himself. He just smiled, wiggled so that Brittany wouldn’t use him as an arm rest any more, then said something about how Charlie did do a good job. Brittany wasn’t paying attention anymore, and was putting all her energy into not laughing. 

Their little group chat didn’t stick together much after that. They all dispersed to do their own thing, and Alph and Charlie didn’t talk much afterwards. 

_That poor_ _poor_ _himbo._ Brittany sighed internally. _I may just have to help him out,_ _hehehe_ _._

* * *

Louie returned shortly after that whole event. He ignored the koppaites entirely and elected to instead tell Olimar all about how the green pikmin he met were carnivores. 

The pikmin never approached them the entire day, and were seemingly still planning what they wanted the crew to do for them still. The day passed with little event, which the crew took as a chance to just relax for a bit. The crash and then the pikmin and then Scarlet... they needed the rest. 

It was night now, and they had decided to take the chance with not flying off – the pikmin’s walls were keeping the pikmin safe, why not them? 

Brittany was running back into her room with a small snack in hand (hey, no more food shortages, may as well snack on sweets!) when she ran into Charlie who was in the main hull as well. A smirk appeared on her face. It was her time to strike. 

“Hey Charlie.” 

“Oh, hi Brittany.” the captain responded sluggishly. 

“You know I’m lesbian, right?” 

“W-Wha...?” Charlie seemed bewildered. 

Brittany knew why of course, but the temptation to mess with him was too great. “You know, I like girls.” 

“... Okay? W-Where are you go-” 

“And that means I’m not competition for Alph’s affection.” 

Charlie suddenly puffed up again. “What do you mean?” 

“I mean I’m not gonna steal your man.” 

“I-I’m not – he's not- things are NOT like that.” 

“Oh of course! Only because you flirt as well as a rock could.” When Charlie didn’t respond, she pushed her hair back behind her ear. “Just remember that we have gay – lesbian solidarity here, no need to be ashamed.” 

Charlie’s “puffness” seemed to die down a little as he slouched. “Why did I ever try to flirt with you? You’re obnoxious...” 

“It’s because I’m also irresistible.” 

Charlie just groaned. 

“Listen though, real talk. If you’re going to flirt with him, go all out. None of this weird half-flirt crap.” 

“I-I mean, it’s not like he’d respond back...” he suddenly looked away, face flushed. 

_Got him._ “Listen, you have to or he won’t get it. He’s as every bit oblivious as you are.” 

“... are you trying to tell me something?” 

“Maybe.” Brittany said, then quickly began to walk away. She slipped into her room before Charlie could stop her. She couldn’t just tell the captain Alph had a crush on him. It’d ruin her fun! That, and Alph made her promise not to tell, and she wouldn’t betray the kid for the world. Doing it this way meant she gets to keep her promise to Alph and mess with Charlie’s head. Two birds, one stone. 

She seemed to recall her Auntie Bea bragging about doing the same thing to her dad when he was trying to court her mom. She smiled a little; maybe she’d get to brag to their kids about this someday as well. 


	8. Alarm Bells

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who has a scheduel for this thing now? Me!
> 
> I'll post a chapter every Saturday as I'm able to. Spring Semester starts on Monday, though, which means there may be times I skip a week (or two... or three...) so no promises that this will consistently be a weekly thing. Just that, when I do have buffer chapters, they'll be posted once a week.

Alph was woken up rather early in the morning by a purple  pikmin . 

The muscular thing was able to shake him with ease. He swatted it away a bit as he sat up, grumbling. He climbed out of bed, and the  pikmin left him so that he could change into his space suit. 

Stepping out if his room revealed that several  pikmin had let themselves into the Drake, and that the rest of his crew mates had also been woken up by them. Wonderful. 

At least everyone else seemed equally cranky and distraught by the  pikmins ’ intrusion. 

With some coercion, the  pikmin managed to get the crew to leave the Drake and enter the meeting hall. All of the  pikmin from the other day were there – Alph could only assume them to be leaders of some sort. Scarlet and her mother sat  alongside them, Scarlet looking scared and her mother looking pissed. 

I _ wonder what the  _ _ pikmin _ _ are doing to force Scarlet into this... _ He never brought it up during the argument – the yelling had made him frozen and useless – but he did agree fully with Louie. There just  _ had  _ to be some alternative than forcing Scarlet to be a translator. However, as the  pikmin couldn’t fully understand him... he wasn’t sure how to tell them to stop doing this, to use one of Louie’s ideas instead. Whistling and throwing were good for fighting monsters and building bridges; not so much for more diplomatic affairs. 

Once everyone was settled, Scarlet stood to translate once more. 

“W-We’ve... There are reports of... of wraiths. They were spotted closer to the city than ever before.” She paused a moment for the red  pikmin to give her more info. “We’re going to set up a group to investigate a particular one that’s really close by. Uh...” Another pause, more info was given. “It will be ready the day after tomorrow, as we need the help of Wooly Pikmin. Can – can you guys be here to help lead?”

Their responses were automatic and synchronous. “Yes.”

Scarlet seemed a little relieved and relayed the information back to the red pikmin, who then made a pleased expression himself. 

“If... If I may,” Brittany pipped up, “What are Wooly Pikmin, and why do we need their help?”

Scarlet was able to answer without the red  pikmin’s assistance. “They’re really fluffy pikmin! The ones we’re closest to live in some mountains. They’re super kind, and know a lot about medicine. One time, momma was visiting Etna of the Pepple tribe of Woolies, and I scrapped my knee on a rock. Etna put this weird slimy stuff on it that smelled funny, and it burned at first, but then all the pain went away!” She beamed, happy to talk about this “Etna” person. 

So those fluffy  pikmin that saved Charlie and him were called Wooly  Pikmin ? Name checked out. Alph wondered vaguely if the  pikmin that tended to him could have been Etna. Then again, Etna wasn’t necessarily the only kind Wooly to exist. At least, Alph hoped so. 

Brittany thanked her for her information. The  pikmin dismissed the crew, and they left alongside Scarlet and her mother. 

* * *

Once again, their day proved to be a rest day. But relaxation came hard, knowing that soon they would be facing another wraith. The thought scared Alph so much that he spent the day in his room. He sketched out a plan for a spaceship, at least until his arm seized up again, then simply laid in his bed. He might have fallen in and out of a dreamless sleep – he couldn’t tell. He spent most of the day daydreaming and anxiously wondering. Brittany had to practically drag him out to have dinner, which he ate slowly due to both lack of  interest and because his arm was  _ still  _ locked up. It never froze for this long before. He’d have to make a note to inform his doctor. 

He thought about the project he had postponed to go on this mission. A mechanical brace, to help keep his arm from locking up. He wasn’t sure if it could logistically work, but it kept him from just sulking around these past two years. 

He then thought about how his cat would always get in the way of his work, and how he’d go ahead and stop to snuggle her. He put away his dishes and slipped into his room again, thoughts of Taco’s purrs and her insistence to sleep practically on his face filling his mind. It didn’t last, fading into how his sister responded when asked to cat sit. 

She had been upset. Why was he going back there? That planet was deadly and Alph was already hurt. He just had to, he had told her, he had to for the  pikmin , and for his friends. He was only one of six people to have gone to that planet, and the sixth saw it as nothing more than a money-making scheme. The others needed him. 

He needed them. 

He needed them to need him. 

They had to, right? They needed him. He wasn’t here wasting their food and their time... maybe he should have stayed back, maybe his arm and anxieties caused more harm than what he could make up for. Maybe-

He stopped. He  clung  to his pillow, and tried not to cry. No, he couldn’t go down that rabbit hole. There was no promise he could climb back out again. 

Someone knocked at his door. When Alph didn’t respond, that someone let themself in anyways. 

“Alph?” it was Charlie. It was always Charlie. 

“Y-yeah?” Alph responded, trying to not sound too chocked up. 

“You... you were in here all day. Did...” Charlie sat at the edge of his bed. “Did you want to talk?” 

“... Not really.” 

A pause. Then, “C-Can I stay in here anyways? So that you’re not alone?”

“Knock yourself out.” Alph grumbled, rolling over a bit. He didn’t mean to be such a jerk; he didn’t want to be a jerk. But... what buts were there? He was being one anyways. 

Charlie sat down next to him. The two stayed silent for a short while, then the door knocked again. 

“Yeah?” Charlie asked from habit, then turned to Alph like he did something bad. Alph just nodded to show he was fine with this. 

Olimar then entered the room. “I didn’t realize you were here already Charlie.” he said, though he didn’t exactly sound surprised. “I, ah, was just going to check on Alph was all.”

Alph’s ear twitched, not sure what to think on this whole situation. On one hand, they cared. On the other hand, they probably cared too much. 

“Can I sit down?”  Olimar asked. Alph nodded again, and  Olimar took a seat on the other side of him. 

“Listen Alph, I...”  Olimar paused for a moment, as if to think. “We’re all scared of these wraiths. I don’t... I don’t think any of us want to face them.” 

Alph simply nodded again, face still in his pillow. 

Olimar sighed. “I’ve never been good at this. Just... you won’t be alone in this, I promise. Your crew will be with you. Louie and I will be with you. The  pikmin will be with you.” 

“We won’t let anything happen to you, or to anyone else, I promise.” Charlie laid a hand on Alph’s back. 

Alph sat up, wrapping his arms around his legs (or the best he could anyways, why was his arm still frozen?).  “... Thanks guys.”

Olimar smiled softly now. “Of course. We’re glad you’re  here, you know?”

“Yeah! Wouldn’t want anyone else but my best engineer by my side!” Charlie’s voice rose suddenly. Alph smiled a bit. He was always so loud when excited... it was  kind of nice, in  its own strange way. 

“We won’t make you come out if you’re not ready.”  Olimar continued. “But... you don’t need to hide away in here, either. We’re always here for you.” 

Alph nodded. “... Thank you.” 

Olimar smiled then patted Alph’s shoulder. The captain rose, then left for the door.

“You  gonna be okay, Alph?” Charlie asked. 

“... I don’t know.” Alph admitted. “I’m just glad you guys are here...” 

“We’re glad you’re here.” Charlie gave him a quick, tight hug. “Have a good night, now.” 

Alph tried to hug back but Charlie was a little too quick, and was now leaving as well. Alph was tempted to call Charlie back, but what would they do? He had nothing left to say. Would they just cuddle? His face flushed. Nope, nope, nope, stars above he wouldn’t ask his  _ captain  _ to cuddle. He just sighed and laid back down. Maybe he should get some sleep, as he was exhausted despite probably sleeping most of the day.

* * *

Charlie sighed as he left Alph’s room.  Olimar wasn’t that far ahead, standing in the hallway and messing with a tablet of some sort. It reminded Charlie of his  Kopad , but looked a little different. 

“Hey, thanks for helping out.” Charlie offered.  Olimar looked up at him. “I was trying to make him feel better, but didn’t know what to do.”

Olimar chuckled a bit. “It wasn’t a problem. I think you did just fine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, sometimes a hug does the trick as well.”

Charlie was silent now. 

“You’re not as sneaky as you think.”  Olimar chuckled some more. “Anyways, I think I’m heading off to bed now. Good night!”

“... Good night.” Charlie mumbled. Brittany knew,  Olimar probably knew... was everyone  _ except  _ for Alph going to know about this? He groaned a little, walking to his own room. This was a mess, and there were so many things to think about. Too many things. He just wanted sleep. 


	9. A Giant Special Intrest

It was rather early in the morning when some noises woke  Olimar . He groaned at first, thinking it was the  pikmin coming to wake them up again, but he quickly realized that wasn’t the case. He got up from his bed, stepped outside his door, and poked his head around a corner. Louie was in the main room of the Drake already, twisting his helmet on. 

“Where you heading off to this morning?”  Olimar asked. 

Louie jumped a bit, turning to  Olimar . “Don’t. Don’t do that.” 

“My  apologies .”

The taller man grunted, then muttered something about heading into the town again. 

“Mind if you stay there for a moment, then? I’d like to go with you.” 

Louie sighed, not giving a clear answer. 

Olimar decided to head back into his room and get ready anyways. He smiled a bit as he left his room, seeing Louie still waiting in the Drake’s main room. Without saying much, they left the ship and began to walk around the  pikmin’s settlement a little bit. 

“... Why did you want to come with me?” Louie asked. 

“Didn’t think you’d want to wander this place alone.”

Louie made a weird sound, crossing his arms across his body. “... Thanks.”

“Any time,  son.” 

The faintest hint of a smile crept across the younger man’s face. 

They walked around aimlessly for a little while, taking in the buildings. They noticed some things they didn’t at first, such as small gardens pikmin tended to (for what reasons,  Olimar didn’t know but it made his mind race with ideas) and small ponds that blue  pikmin splashed about in. The sheer amount of  pikmin , too! Not just in the quantity, but the variety as well. 

Olimar was certain there were more  pikmin species he didn’t even see here in the city. It was impossible to contain his excitement, and he never seemed to slow down in his speech “They’re so pretty, Louie! What do you think they all do?”

Louie just shrugged as they crossed paths with pink  pikmin who had long stems that dragged on the ground behind them.

“Do you think the long stem makes for a whip?”  Olimar wondered aloud, only to get a quiet “maybe” in response from Louie. 

Some small grey  pikmin then skittered by them, some kind of shiny objects clutched in their paws. “Those guys sure are fast!”  Olimar giggled. He then saw some angry red  pikmin chase them down, yelling. “... they look a little like racoons, actually.”  Olimar realized, seeing them dart off with what may be stolen goods. 

“Heh,  pikmin after my own heart.” A devilish, toothy grin spread across Louie’s face. 

“Oh, don’t even joke about that.”  Olimar grumbled, earning a laugh from Louie. 

They turned around a corner, and what could be described as a simple gazebo came into sight. Sitting in it were a trio of obsidian black  pikmin whos’ limbs, eyes, stem, and flowers all glowed a brilliant cyan.  Olimar stopped for just a second. “You see them, Louie? They’re glowing! They must live in caves!”

Louie looked on. “They look the way I dress back home.”

“... That they do. The neon-on-black hurts the head if you look at it too long though...” the captain complained as he looked away.

“That’s the point. At least for me.”

“You just want to cause problems on  purpose , don’t you?”

“Pretty much!”

Olimar narrowed his eyes at the younger man for just a second when some yellow-and-brown  pikmin crossed their path. “Oh! They look like tiger’s eye crystals – wait, more rock  pikmin ! I wonder what kind of rock the other ones we found were then... Shale, mayhaps?”

Louie shrugged before tapping  Olimar’s shoulder. “That one reminds me of a snake that lives by my house.”

Olimar looked at the dull black  pikmin walking along the path. Once it walked out into the sun, it gleamed with all the colors of the rainbow wherever light hit it. The captain’s eyes went wide. “IT’S SO SHINY LOUIE!!! You’re going to have to tell me what species of snake it is that lives by your house, I want one.”

“You don’t need another pet.”

“Yes I do.”

They both looked up when some shadows passed overhead. Orange winged  pikmin with wings more akin to  spectralids than  scornets flew past them. “More winged  pikmin !”  Olimar bounced in place a bit. “Louie, this place, it’s fantastic!”  Olimar suddenly spun around to face Louie, making the other stumble a bit. “This city, this safe haven... I’m so glad the pikmin built it.” He smiled widely, but was out of breath now. Was he tired already? He couldn’t be  _ that  _ old... right?

Louie  regained his footing, sighing. “Wanna sit down?”

“... Yes please.”  Olimar sighed. 

They didn’t need to go too far before finding a bench, where they promptly sat to rest for a little while.  Olimar stretched as he sat, trying not to groan. Gods, why was he so sore? He used to be able to go a lot longer before getting tuckered out... maybe it was the excitement of it all. Yeah, that had to be it!  Definitely  not his age...

He must have fallen asleep, as Louie’s voice caused him to jump a little. 

“Huh?”  Olimar looked around, confused. 

“Scarlet is here.” Louie responded. 

Olimar looked down to see the small white  pikmin beaming up at him. “Hi, Mr.  Olimar !”

“Oh, hi Scarlet.”

“She and I were just talking. I thought you’d be interested in hearing it.” Louie then turned to Scarlet. “Would you like to sit with us, we ca-”

“Yes!” Scarlet squealed, interrupting him. She then jumped up on the bench and sat promptly in Louie’s lap. Louie looked to  Olimar , confused.  Olimar could only smile and shrug. 

“I was telling Louie all about the Giants!” she squealed.

“Giants?”  Olimar’s ear twitched as he spoke. 

“Yep! They’re these  reaaaaaaly big creatures that have gone extinct! They used to be all over the place and they built things just like we  pikmin do. No one knows what they really were or where they went, though. They did leave us lots of  shinies behind for us to find!” 

Olimar immediately realized why Louie wanted him to hear this. 

“And there’s more I haven’t told you yet, Louie!” she squealed, looking up at the  Hocotation . “Some of the  shinies we found were books! I’m not allowed near them because they’re...  frg ...  fregil ... easily broken. But they have pictures! And words, too, I guess. Some  pikmin have  learned how to read these books too! Which is weird, they’re not in  pikish , but isn’t that cool?”

Olimar nodded. “That is really cool!”

“Anything else you know about the Giants?” Louie asked. 

“They lived in groups like we do. They liked  shinies and they built things. That’s why I think they were just giant  pikmin !” she then crossed her arms. “The... the... the learners of Giants think they’re monkeys though, and won’t listen to my idea. That’s dumb. Monkeys are dumb.” 

“What makes them think that they were... mon-keys?”  Olimar struggled to pronounce the word. Just what was a monkey  anyways ?

“They won’t say! And that’s dumb! They won’t listen to me, but when I ask why they’re so right they tell me to let them work. I just... I just  wanna learn about giants...” she crossed her arms again, and was seemingly pouting. 

“That’s a shame. Well, we’ll listen to you.” Louie patted her head a bit. 

“Thank you!” she squealed. She then looked away. “Oh! There’s momma Venus! I’ll see you later!” and without much else of a good-bye she ran off to the green pikmin. 

“Well, that was... something.”  Olimar laughed a bit. “Kids are funny like that, you know?”

“Not really.” Louie sighed, slouching into the bench a little. 

“... Louie, do you think those treasures we found were Giant artifacts?”

“Of course. That’s why I woke you up.”

“I always knew they were from something, but to have a clearer answer now...”  Olimar then frowned a bit. “Makes me feel bad that we had to sell them.”

“Maybe we can get them back? Besides, I’m sure there’s plenty more on this planet. I wouldn’t worry too much.”

“... Thanks, Louie.” 

The younger man nodded, looking to the sky. “Hmm. Noon already. I haven’t had breakfast yet either... Let’s go back to the Drake and have some lunch.”

“Yeah, good idea.”


	10. The Crystal Wraith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s some potentially triggering content in this chapter, but the warnings are also spoilers. Short version is: blood and death. A long version that doubles as a chapter summary can be found in the end notes. Always know you’re free to skip to the end if it gets to be too much for you!

It was the next morning now. Today was the day they’d investigate that wraith. 

Everyone in the Drake was tense, and hardly a word was spoken. Only Charlie said anything, as he gave out short orders every now and again. Alph seemed like he’d faint at any second. 

When the crew stepped out of the Drake and into the town square,  Olimar noted that the  pikmin with them were equally tense. They had a somewhat small squad prepared, only thirty  pikmin total. Ten reds, fifteen flytraps, four woolies, and one of those orange winged  pikmin . Each stayed in clusters of ten, one having five red and five flytraps and the other having five flytraps, four woolies, and a winged. Everyone had a crude weapon of some kind, and the woolies had medical supplies strapped to their bodies. There was a sense of order to these groups that  Olimar had never seen in  pikmin before. It fascinated him despite the unease it brought with it.

Little Scarlet was seen nowhere in the crowd. Her “momma”, Venus, was present and talking with a red  pikmin . Soon the two of them approached the crew, and though a series of  jesters managed to get them all to follow. 

_This is it. Let’s hope we don’t have to fight this thing._ Olimar felt a little sick, but he had to keep going. The pikmin needed their help desperately. 

They walked out of the city and into the forest, where they... kept walking. Everyone was silent, but  Olimar could feel the tension rise with each passing second. From the corner of his eye, he could see that Alph had begun to shake again.  Olimar frowned a little.  _ Poor kid... hopefully this doesn’t end up being as bad as the Plasm Wraith... _ For a moment,  Olimar wondered if having Alph come to face another wraith was even a good idea. 

Early morning soon faded into noon, and finally they had stopped walking. Everyone sat down in some sort of clearing.  Olimar was winded, and grateful for the rest as he leaned against a rock. Louie sat nearby him, but didn’t say a word. The  pikmin talked quietly amongst themselves, and soon a red  pikmin had approached  Olimar . It sat down across from him, and began to draw in the dirt. 

Olimar stared at the drawing for a moment, and Louie looked over it as well. “I think it’s  nearby .” Louie  finally spoke. “And I think they want us to be sneaky.”

This, of course, grabbed the attention of the  koppaites as well. Charlie stood up and stared at the drawing. “Yeah, I agree with Louie. That seems to be what they intend.” 

Olimar nodded. Right. They just had to be on the side  lines. They weren't going to fight it, just observe it. But if a fight did occur... well, they seemed prepared enough? It was hard for  Olimar to know for sure. 

The red  pikmin seemed to get the impression that the crew understood. It wasn’t long after that the break was ended, and the  pikmin began to stalk away into the underbrush. 

“Alright. There’s five of us. I’ll take my crew.  Olimar , you stay with Louie.” Charlie ordered. 

Olimar nodded. Their power relation was... weird. They were both captains, but  Olimar was a ship captain while Charlie was only a squad captain.  Olimar , however, was just a deep space truck driver while Charlie was the one with any true military positions. Neither role really mattered in this mission though. It was hard to say who should order who around, but  Olimar chose to just let Charlie take the lead. No need to make things complicated when they have the same goal: save the  pikmin . 

As the  pikmin lurked, they slowly split off into two halves. Charlie turned to his crew and used his head to  gesture  towards the  half they’d be following.  Olimar noted that it was the one without the woolie  pikmin . Maybe the  koppaite felt the need to let Louie and him be closer to the medics, as they were only two?  Olimar couldn’t really tell, but he and Louie still fell in line with the other half of the pikmin. 

It wasn’t long before they had spotted a clearing that was too perfect. It was a near perfect circular hole, large with brambles on all sides save for a neatly constructed entrance. The grass that had begun to grow in the hole was also finely mowed. While the brambles proved annoying, the  pikmin and their alien companions were much too small to really be stopped by it. Everyone froze when a strange sound called out, but from where  Olimar couldn’t tell. Then he saw it, a nearly transparent wraith slithering on through the entrance of its makeshift compound. It was almost like a ghost, with only the faintest reflections and its deep grey core to give its  existence away. The transparency faded into a more translucent form as it shifted to a standing position not unlike how the plasm wraith stood. This one, however, had a straighter posture and “arms” of the same length, and also lacked that strange hole the plasm wraith had. 

It wandered its compound for a little bit. One of its arms crystalized into a fine blade, and it used it to cut some blades of grass it seemingly deemed too long. It stood up when done, looking around a bit. 

Within that same moment, it turned and threw a shard of crystal deep into the brush, and the unmistakable sounds of pikmin dying filled the arena. 

In an instant, everyone scattered.  Pikmin jumped into the arena itself to get a better shot at this weird crystal wraith. The  koppaites followed suit, throwing  pikmin at the beast to help them get on top of it, where the  pikmin would then try stabbing or hitting it with their various weapons. Small bits of the wraith would fall off as a result, but a quick shake to get the  pikmin off and a second to reabsorb the goop was all it took for it to get into prime fighting form again. 

Whatever this thing was, it was somehow both weaker and stronger than the plasm wraith. Almost as if it were less talented, but better trained

Once its back was turned,  Olimar jumped out with Louie and their  pikmin to try attacking it. He threw some  pikmin onto it’s back, who stabbed and clawed  desperately at the thing.  Olimar then realized the woolies nor the winged  pikmin were with him. He turned around for just a second to see that the woolies were indeed hanging back. Maybe because they were the medics? The winged was nowhere to be seen.

“OLIMAR!” Louie suddenly shouted, and  Olimar was suddenly pushed over. A harsh  _ crack  _ filled the air as he scrambled to his feet. 

The crystal wraith was hovering over him, poised to strike with a sword-arm.  Olimar rolled out of the way as some  pikmin clung to it and made it stagger a little. It’s other arm quickly grew crystal spikes, which it used to smack the pikmin on it with. At least one was skewered by the thing. It didn’t have much time to attack before another  pikmin was thrown onto its “head”. 

Olimar panicked as he looked around the arena. Charlie was the only other crew member he could see, though he could swear he heard the others nearby. He could only count ten  pikmin with them, but knew there just had to be more... right? 

_We were under prepared. We have to run. But where? We can’t risk this thing following us..._ Olimar panicked as he hastily threw another pikmin at the wraith. What should they do? _What should they do?!_ **_What should they do?!_**

Olimar’s ear twitched as he heard the sound of... well, he didn’t know what the sound was. He looked up at the source of it: at least fifty some orange  pikmin flying above them, each carrying a rock  pikmin . They flew in a little closer and began to drop the rock  pikmin on the wraith, who flinched and tried to escape in response. As rock  pikmin fell to the ground,  Olimar raced to grab them and throw them at the wraith again. It sliced and stabbed at the rock  pikmin , but to no avail; their rocky bodies were too sturdy to be harmed by it.  Olimar made one good throw at  its sword, causing it to crack a little. 

It seemed the others noticed this as well, as soon rock  pikmin were constantly being chucked at its sword. The crystal blade soon broke, and it tried to escape as it turned to its more transparent form.  Pikmin still chased it, throwing spears at its grey core, but whatever gooey substance it was made of stopped the spears from going near the core. 

It managed to escape, but at least they knew how to fend it off now. Maybe this would even scare it off for good!

Olimar sighed with relief and did a quick headcount. There were fifty rocks and fifty-one of the orange winged  pikmin .  Olimar then realized that the one winged who went missing had gone for back up.  Fly ing probably meant they could travel faster. That must have been the reason for sending the winged with them. He turned as he continued the headcount. All five woolies were alive, and tending to some wounded  pikmin . Only six reds and nine  fly raps remained, however. In a panic,  Olimar looked over the group to make sure Venus was alright. After only a moment of searching, he was able to find her being patched up by a woolie. He sighed again. Good. Scarlet’s mother was still okay. 

He looked over to make sure the other crew members were okay. Brittany was rubbing her shoulder, Alph was panicking and crying, and Charlie was doing his best to comfort Alph with back rubs and gentle “It’s okays.” Olimar turned around to find Louie, but...

“Hey guys? Where’s Louie?”  Olimar asked. 

The other crew mates seemed equally confused.  Olimar began to panic again, turning around and trying to peer through the crowd of  pikmin . “Louie? Louie?!” He was now shoving  pikmin out of the way to try and find him. “Louie?!” 

Finally, he spotted the younger  hocotation . “LOUIE!” He shoved past a few more  pikmin to get to him.

Louie was on the far side of the clearing, laying in the grass. His helmet was badly cracked. 

“LOUIE! LO-” he reached over to roll the  hocotation over, to see if he was okay, but recoiled when he felt... no. “L-Louie -”  Olimar looked over the large wound, touching his helmet in an attempt to rub his cheek like he always did when stressed.

All he managed was to smear blood all over it. 

Seeing the blood – Louie's blood – on his helmet and hand finally broke him. He began to hyperventilate and cry and shake Louie out of desperation. But it wouldn’t work. Louie wasn’t going to wake up.

Louie was dead. 

_The crystal wraith must have gotten him. It’s - it’s sword... when he pushed me, when he_ saved _me._ Olimar shook more. _He saved me._ _This could have been me. This was_ supposed _to have been me, I..._

Olimar jumped when a tiny hand touched him. He turned around to see Venus, who had a sadness in her four eyes that almost reflected  Olimar’s . He turned a bit to see all of the other  pikmin staring at him. Brittany and Charlie looked on, seeming  uncomfortable and confused. Alph refused to look at him at all, and was still crying. 

Olimar turned back to Venus. “Please.” He whispered in a  hoarse voice. “Help me. Help him. He’s - he’s like a son to me –  _ he is my son _ – please help me.” 

Venus only stared at him, unable to understand a word. She just took her cape off, wiped away the blood on Olimar, then wrapped the cape around him. She cooed some words in  pikish , putting her hand to  Olimar’s chest. Then she stood to the other flytraps and barked out something to them. The other flytraps nodded and walked over to Louie. 

“W-what are you doing?” 

Neither Venus nor the other  fly traps looked at him. They simply picked Louie’s body up. 

“What are you doing?!”  Olimar repeated, struggling to stand up. 

Venus finally looked at him, placing a hand on his shoulder again. She stared at  him; face scrunched in a strange way for a little while before she spoke. “Trust.” 

Olimar stared back. “Trust?”

“Trust.” 

He looked to the  koppaites again. Brittany simply patted his shoulder and urged him to start walking with the group.  Olimar looked around, feeling dazed. The rocks and orange wings walked or flew closely, protectively, around the group. Everyone else stayed in the middle of the near diamond shape the other  pikmin types created. The flytraps who carried Louie were encircled by their fellow flytraps, Venus herself holding a spear in protection of the  hocotation .  Olimar clung onto the cape like a child, still feeling a little confused. He hardly registered the two red pikmin who walked by his side, each a hand to his back as they returned to the city. 

* * *

It was almost sunset when they returned to the city.  Olimar still felt dazed though, and was unable to recall the walk back. He was hardly able to recognize where he was at. 

The  pikmin then began to disperse, most heading for the town hall. The flytraps, on the other hand, began to walk to their onion.  Olimar snapped his head to them, realizing they still had Louie. “What are you doing?” he called out to them. Of course, they didn’t listen, and got dangerously close to the onion. 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”  Olimar repeated, running at the  pikmin . 

But not fast enough. 

They brought Louie under the onion, where it sucked him up. 

Olimar froze for a moment, then stared at Venus. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!  _ WHAT DID YOU DO?! _ ” he yelled at her, getting closer. Some other flytraps restrained him before he could get too close. 

The onion sputtered and glowed before popping out a single seed.  Olimar just stared in horror as it planted itself and grew. He couldn’t yell at them anymore, just shake as the sprout swayed without wind.

He looked back to the  koppaites , who seemed equally mortified. In fact, most  pikmin seemed scared and disgusted by what took place. He turned to the flytraps again. “Why?” he barely whispered. 

Venus said nothing. She just walked over to the sprout, and pulled it out of the ground. 

What came out... hit  Olimar with too many emotions and thoughts. 

Louie grumbled and swatted Venus away. His suit was gone, and several patches of his body were replaced with the same green of the flytrap  pikmin (namely his lower torso and lower arms). A long green stem with the same “mouth leaf” of the flytraps grew from his head, and four wide green eyes had replaced his old eyes. 

“L-… Louie?”  Olimar managed out as the other flytraps let go of him. 

“O-Olimar?” The younger man responded, then groaned. “ Olimar , what happened? Why does my neck hurt? And my... everything else.” 

Olimar didn’t respond. He couldn’t respond. He ran to Louie, fell to his knees, and hugged him. 

“Hey, what are yo-”

“Y-You’re okay...”  Olimar managed out between tears. “Y... You’re okay...” He began to shake some more. “My son is okay...” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings/Chapter Summary: while fighting a “crystal wraith”, a wraith with power over only crystals but can shape them into objects like spikes and swords, several pikmin die. The wraith also kills Louie, having both sliced him and thrown him against a wall. They manage to scare the wraith off when reinforcements of rock pikmin arrive. Olimar then finds Louie, then panics and breaks down crying when he realizes Louie is dead. Venus comforts him and comes up with a plan to help. They return to the pikmin city, where the flytraps take Louie to their onion. Olimar is at first horrified by their seemingly betrayal of his trust, but calms down when he sees that Louie has been revived as some half-pikmin, half-hocotation thing. Chapter ends with Olimar crying over Louie again.


	11. New Life

Louie groaned with pain when he woke up again. He sat up a bit, rubbing his head, when an unfamiliar voice began to coo at him. 

“Shh, don’t strain yourself yet...” her voice was soft and sweet. Louie let her lay him back down. Something cool and damp was placed on his head, and he let out a sigh of relief. He opened his eyes a bit, trying to find whoever it was that was with him. All he saw was a wooly pikmin. 

“W-Where is...?” He spoke in a hoarse voice. 

The wooly looked up. “I’m right here.” 

The two then stared at each other, bewildered. 

“I-I can understand you?” Louie asked. 

“You’re talking in Pikish!” the wooly responded. “I - I should tell someone! Oh, but if I tell a star, they won’t leave you alone... Venus. I’ll get Venus.” Before Louie could say anything else, she had run off. 

The hocotation groaned and rubbed his head again. This planet was filled with too many surprises. As he rubbed his head, however, he found his hand felt... weird. And heavy. He pulled it away to look at it. It was green, a little larger than before, and had only three digits. Like a pikmin hand. 

“What in the world...” Louie sat back up, and a wet rag fell off his head and into his lap. He grumbled as he held it on his head again. His head felt heavy too, but he didn’t want to lay down. Leaning back proved uncomfortable, like something was being squished, but he didn’t want to move again. 

The wooly pikmin returned, Venus in tow. Venus’s arm was in a sling, but otherwise she looked the same: a fly trap with a proud posture and a bulbear hide cape. 

“Is it true?” She asked. Her voice was strong, but gentle. 

“Is what true?” he responded. 

“Hmm... so it is.” Venus sighed and walked closer. “This must be a consistent side effect then...” 

“Side effect? Of what? What – what happened to me?” 

Venus turned to the wooly pikmin. “Is it best to tell him now?” 

“He’ll find out eventually. No sense in making him wait in confusion.” 

Venus nodded. “Thank you, Etna.” She then turned back to Louie. “There’s no way for me to put this gently. You died, Louie.” 

Louie froze a bit. “I... what?” His ears twitched as bits came back to him. The crystal wraith. Olimar being in danger... “It was the wraith, wasn’t it?” 

Venus nodded again. “Yes. Olimar was distraught, so I decided to bring you to our onion.” 

“So... I’m a pikmin now?” he looked at his hands again. 

“Er, not quite? Something between pikmin and... whatever you were before. Bits of you are still the same. Mostly.” 

Louie blinked slowly as he flexed his hands again. He had no thumbs, and he didn’t really like that. “H-How did you know it would work?” 

“I... That explanation isn’t mine to just give out freely, I’m sorry to say.” She admitted. 

Louie frowned. That wasn’t too comforting. “Are Olimar and the others okay?” 

“Last I saw, they were still shaken up and quiet about what happened. I think they’ll be okay though.” 

“I need to see one of them. Any of them.” He looked up from his hands and directly at Venus. “Please I... I need to know something.” 

Venus nodded. “Understood. I’ll see what I can do.” With that, she turned and left the room. 

“Now, lay back down.” The wooly pikmin – Etna, wasn’t that her name? - instructed. “You need to rest after all of that.” 

Louie grumbled, but complied. He was still really tired, and everything still _hurt_ so much. Particularly his neck and general abdomen area. Maybe it had to do with how he died? He frowned. No, best not to think about that ever again. He closed his eyes. Everything hurt so much... 

* * *

Louie jolted a bit at the sound of a door opening. He looked over with groggy eyes and saw... 

“O-Olimar!” He sat up, despite his pounding headache. 

“Hey there, kiddo.” Olimar’s smile was wide, but clearly sad. There was something in his hands. “You doing alright?” 

“I... I think?” Louie shrugged. “Just wish I had something for this headache.” 

Olimar’s smile faded a bit. “I’m... not sure what hocotation medicine would do to you now. Otherwise, I’d get you some pain killers.” 

“Mmm. Don’t worry about it.” 

Olimar nodded and sat in a chair next to Louie. “Took forever to find you, ya know? They have you on the third floor of a building that looks identical to four others.” Before Louie could offer any sort of comfort, Olimar began talking again. “But I digress. You must be hungry after all of that, so I brought you some instant noodles. It’s... not much, but it’s what we got, so...” he handed Louie the thing he brought in, which Louie realized was a bowl wrapped in tin foil. 

“Thank you.” Louie nodded. He tried to be polite, he really did. But when the smell of the soup broth hit his nose, he realized just how hungry he was. He ended up slurping the meal down quickly and in a rather messy fasion. He groaned a little as he finished and leaned back. 

“Well... glad you liked it.” Olimar chuckled a little. “Have the pikmin been treating you well?” 

Louie nodded. “Yes. And I... I can understand them now. Their language, I mean.” 

Olimar’s ears twitched. “Oh! That’s wonderful!” 

“Yeah...” Louie stretched a bit. “Which is why I wanted to see you. To make sure that... that I still knew common.” 

Olimar nodded. “I... I see.” 

“I think I’m ready to head out now.” Louie quickly changed the subject, hoping it may make Olimar feel better. “Hopefully the doctor will let me out.” 

“Are you sure? You haven’t been here long, you know.” 

Louie wasn’t sure. In fact, he was still very much in pain. But with this new knowledge... he had to leave. He had to use this. Then he could rest more at the Drake. So, he nodded. “Just have to wait and see if the doc will come back, so I can ask to leave.” 

“I-I see... take care then.” He stood up, then leaned in to hug Louie. “And... I’m glad you’re alive, son... I’m so glad you’re alive. 

“Uhhh... I am too?” Louie managed out as he patted the captain’s back. 

Olimar chuckled weakly as he pulled away. “Heh... I’ll see you later, alright kiddo?” 

Louie nodded as the captain left the room. He... wasn’t expecting that hug, to say the least. Or any of this, for that matter. _What’s gotten into him?_ Louie wondered for a moment, then, _ah yeah... I died... poor guy must be shaken up, still._

Some time than passed - too much time, if you were to ask Louie – before Etna returned. 

“I’m ready to leave.” he blurted out. 

“Oh, no you’re not! You are to stay here and rest!” she crossed her arms. “I didn’t get this award by letting my patients walk out before they were done healing!” she pointed at a bone shard woven into her mane. 

Louie stared blankly at it. “Well I guess that’s too bad for the both of us – I gotta do this for Scarlet.” 

“Don’t bring that little one into this! You’re not getting out-” 

“I’m serious, Doc. If I can speak both pikish and galactic common, then I need to replace the kid as translator.” 

“I-” she then groaned. “How _dare_ you make me choose between her wellbeing and yours?” the wooly pikmin crossed her arms. 

“I’m not making _you_ choose. I said I’m going to leave here and take her place.” 

“... bull headed little brat...” Etna muttered. “Fine. For Scarlet. But you _must_ rest at your weird silver onion most of the day, _got it_? I’ll be checking on you!” 

_Does she mean the Drake?_ Louie wondered. “Don’t worry, Doc, I was planning on it.” 

She nodded and made notes on her clipboard. “And don’t do anything stupid. Or else.” 

“... I don’t think Olimar would let me get away with anything stupid.” 

“Good! At least your leader has some sense!” she huffed. “You’re free to go.” 

* * *

Louie wasn’t sure what to expect when he stepped outside. Countless pikmin surrounding him and asking if he was okay wasn’t on that non-existent list, though it realistically should have been. He tried to ignore them despite understanding them – his head hurt too much and he knew he would lash out. He couldn’t lash out at them. Olimar would be upset if he did. 

He made his way over to the meeting hall. A few pikmin tried to stop him along the way, but he was not to be deterred. He pushed the door open, stepping into a meeting already in progress. 

“Oh good, he’s awa-” the red pikmin began before being cut off. 

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, BARGING IN ON OUR MEETING LIKE THIS? WE DIDN’T INVITE YOU!” the white pikmin all but shrieked. 

“Actaea, calm down. He’s a leader. He can’t hurt us.” The rock pikmin cooed in trademark gravelly voice. 

The white pikmin turned on him. “We have rules here, Daru! He could be a god walking in here for all I care! He needs to follow them! Gild, get him out of here!” she now turned to the red pikmin. 

“Wait-” Louie took a step forward, and everyone stared at him. “I’m - I’m here to be a translator. In Scarlet’s place.” 

The red pikmin – Gild, was that his name? - curled his stem a little. Louie got the sense that this was somehow a pikmin equivalent to smiling. “Of course. You were so worried about her on day one. Alright, what does the council think?” 

“Getting her away from this mess may be good.” The rock pikmin Daru spoke first. “I... don’t think she can handle it. I say yes.” 

“Having someone competent would be appreciated. I’d rather have him then the lil weirdo. It’s a yes from me.” venom dripped from Actaea’s voice. Almost literally. 

By the end, the vote was a resounding “yes” across the board, all for the same reason – Scarlet could not handle it (told in... varying aggressive ways...) 

Louie nodded. “Come get me whenever you need me then. I’m going back to my ship to rest up.” 

Gild nodded. “Of course, of course. Rest. You’ve... been through a lot.” 

Louie turned and left for the Drake. He didn’t need to be reminded about his whole ordeal, though he got the sense that people were going to remind him anyways... 

* * *

Olimar gladly welcomed Louie back on board once he got back. The koppaites were... much wearier around him, however. They never did get over the whole “stealing their food” thing even after he apologized, and... 

_They must have seen me die too._ Louie realized, suddenly feeling sick. It was at that moment he decided to go to his room and rest again. 

When he awoke it was dinner time. Everyone was quieter than usual, and it unnerved Louie. Not that he took part in the conversations but not having them there just felt off. 

After eating in silence for a few minutes, Olimar looked up. “I’m... I’m just glad to have you back buddy. Room felt empty last night without you!” 

Louie nodded in thanks, and then Brittany got up and left with her food. 

“Eat in th-” Charlie began, before being cut off by her bedroom door shutting behind her. He just groaned. 

Louie looked to Olimar, who just shrugged. As he turned away again, his ears leaned flat and his stem began to flick about in agitation. He knew it would take more than one night for them to be okay, but... would they ever be okay? 

He then gripped his bowl tighter. His recklessness in battle, the wounds he suffered.... was it going to scar all of them forever? 

He jolted as he felt someone touch his back. He looked back to Olimar, who was trying to comfort him as he smiled. “Hey, son. It’ll be alright. You hear me?” 

Louie just nodded, his stem becoming still again. 

“It’ll be alright son. I promise. It’ll be okay. You’ll be okay...” 


	12. Helping Hands

Louie grumbled as he struggled with his fork. A fork of all things. 

His past two meals had been soups he could just drink, which was all well and good.  Certainly easier on these weird  pikmin hands. But he wanted other kinds of food too, dammit! 

And that  meant learning how to use a fork all over again. 

He had no idea why it was so damn  _ difficult _ . 

His noises of frustration must have been obvious, as soon Alph walked into the room with him. “Do... you need help?” he asked. 

Louie just grunted. “Can you make me robot hands?”

Alph giggled a bit. “No, but... wait right here. I have something that may help!” he then turned and left. 

Louie just groaned.  _ What grand idea does the kid have in store? _ He was... fairly certain Alph was his same age or older, but he was so tiny compared to him that it was hard not to see him as younger.  Especially with that baby face thing going on. 

When Alph returned, he had several... stress balls?... in his hands. “Alright. Watch what I do.” he set the balls down on the table, then stretched his hands out. “I know you have... less fingers now... but try to do what I’m doing, okay?”

He began to stretch his hands in odd ways. As Louie followed along, he found it didn’t hurt for as weird looking as it was. He did struggle to match some stretches on account of no longer having a pinkie finger or a thumb though...

After a few  minutes , Alph stopped. “Grab the yellow one. It’s the softest.”

As this was proving to at least not be hurting him, he nodded and followed along. The stress ball was... a little tougher than he expected, and he couldn’t say he liked the rubber texture. Still, he followed along with another series of hand stretches and exercises that included the ball. But as time passed, realization as to how Alph knew all of this dawned on him. 

“H-Hey Alph?” Louie asked, stopping. 

“Yeah?”

“Is... your arm doing any better?”

The  koppaite scowled a bit and looked away. “No, it’s not.” he snapped, soon followed by a meek “Sorry...”

“J-Just thought I’d ask. I thought that... after all this time...”

Alph turned back to him. “I never told you, did I? No – of course I didn’t, you were already back home when I found out...” his ears leaned back. 

“Found out what?”

He began to hug himself. “T-The damage is permanent. The burns were too bad, a-and my treatment too delayed...”

Louie’s ears then pinned back as well, stem going somewhat limp. “I... I’m sorry.”

“I just... I just don’t  _ understand _ . After that... that... that  _ thing  _ burned me, it just... stared at me. I had no idea what was going through its mind – was it going to burn me again? Kill me?” he began to shake hard.

Louie stood up to place a hand on Alph’s shoulder, only for the shorter man to flinch and step away. “Listen I... I’m no good at this kind of stuff.  Olimar or Charlie could help you more. But...” he sighed. Gods, there was nothing he could say. They were here to fight wraiths, to protect  pikmin from them. He couldn’t say the Plasm Wraith couldn’t get to him anymore, or that stuff was behind them now, because the creepy bastard may show up any day now. 

Having him face the wraiths was a terrible idea. But Louie also knew from personal  experience that forcing him to stay back would be just as bad for him. 

“You’ve faced it before. You know it’s tricks. Yeah, the creep is tough as nails and impossible to read, but you know what its limits are. You know how to deal with it. You... you can do better, if it shows up again, for both yourself and the pikmin.”

Alph smiled sadly. “T-Thanks Louie...” he looked down. “I just wish it... never mind.” he sighed. “Keep the stretches up, okay? They helped me. They... might help you.”

Louie nodded. He wasn’t going to force more out of Alph that he didn’t want to say. “I will. I’ll also let you know how it goes.”

A happier smile spread across Alph’s face as he smiled and waved. “Take care.” With that, he left.

Louie sighed and returned to doing his hand exercises. He found it to feel... kind of good, actually. Though his hands were getting sore from the work. After a while he stopped.  _ I... just hope this actually helps. _ Alph seemed unsure... Of course, Alph was only doing based on whatever he knew. Louie couldn’t fault him for that. 

As he was done, he decided to scoop up the balls and head back to his room. If there was one good thing about his hands being weirdly big now, it was that he could carry more things. He just laid them on his desk for the time being – he only really used it for his tiny laptop anyway, and headed for the door again.

“H-Hey Louie!”  Olimar stepped into the doorway, catching Louie off guard.

“Ack - Captain! Please, stop sneaking up on me!”

Olimar’s ears twitched. “Sorry kid... I... just wanted to make sure you were  doin ’ okay.”

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Louie grumbled a bit. 

A pause. Then, “... I’m sorry, kid. I know you’re okay now... I... I just...” he sighed and hugged Louie again, causing the taller man to squeak in agitation and surprise. “I was so scared you’d be gone forever. I didn’t know the  pikmin could... could bring you back from the dead like this.” He tensed a bit. “You... you were  _ dead  _ Louie. You were...” He looked down and began shaking. Louie  realized ... he was crying.

Ah shit... “Hey, hey it’s alright Cap’. It’s alright...” he tried to pat his back the best he could, given how his arms were pinned to his sides. “You don’t need to cry over me.”

Olimar sniffled. “I-I know... you.... you’re like a son to me, you know?”

Louie’s stem went limp again. He had only heard  Olimar say that once before, back when they were hunting for treasure that first time around. He didn't think much of it then, as it came out of nowhere and most likely spurred on by the poor guy missing his family but...

Louie just nodded in response. 

“I - I’m so glad you’re still here, Lou.”  Olimar then pulled himself away. “Sorry... sorry for getting all touchy feely again, I-”

“No, it’s... It’s alright.” Louie rubbed his arm. “I... can only imagine what happened... during the time before I was... before I became a hybrid.”

Olimar was quiet now, slowly nodding. He turned to leave. 

“Wait-” Louie began.  Olimar turned back. “Just... take care of yourself... Okay D-… okay Cap’?”

A soft smile appeared on  Olimar’s face. “You too, Lou. You too...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a note - the series will be going on a short break so I can refill the backlog :D and also focus on school a little more...


End file.
